The purpose of this study is analyze the extent of the middle school teacher's role conflicts. To do so, a close examination whether differences between the extent of role conflicts extent in such realms perceived by teachers as the subject matter ins...
The purpose of this study is analyze the extent of the middle school teacher's role conflicts. To do so, a close examination whether differences between the extent of role conflicts extent in such realms perceived by teachers as the subject matter instruction, guidance, administrative work, human relations and gender difference and the extent of role conflicts as a household head (housewife) exist, according to their personal characters, has been mainly conducted. To do so, the author of this paper has set the following propositions:
First, are there any significant differences in the extent of role conflicts concerning the various roles (subject matter instructor, student's guide, administrative work personnel, organizational member, conflicts between home and school and so on) at schools and homes, as perceived by middle school teachers, depending on teacher's personal variables?
Secondly, is any significant correlation shown among the middle school teacher's role conflicts factors?
Third, is the influence of teachers' personal variables on role conflicts significant?
A questionnaire survey was conducted targeting 567 teachers working at 28 middle schools in the western area of South Gyeongsang Province to identify the answers to the propositions mentioned above. The questionnaires were produced separately for male teachers and female teachers; the two types of questionnaires were composed of 5 step- scale types of 33 questions. For each question, the outcome was analyzed by providing points for each answer as follows: 1 point was provided to the response "not at all," 2 points to the response, "not," 3 points to the response, "so-so," 4 points to the response, "yes," and 5 points to the response, "very so," respectively.
The results of this study are as follows:
First, the recognition level of the role conflicts by middle school teacher's role factors was lower than the mediocre extent (M=2.62) overall with regard to the role performance. By sub-factor, teachers perceived subject matter instruction, guidance, work at work place, administrative work, work at home, human relations and gender difference in order. Married male teachers and the teachers with 21 years or more in teaching experience felt relatively fewer conflicts than married female teachers and teachers with less than 21 years in teaching experience. Middle school teachers perceived conflicts less than high school teachers, seemingly because the burden of the guidance for entrance into a college or university is less than high school and the adaptation to school and basic living habit education are a little easier than elementary school. In terms of subject matter instruction, teachers appeared to feel some burden for the curriculum process by level and performance evaluation and instruction method improvement including ICT utilization, due to the execution of the 7th Official Education Program.
Secondly, concerning the correlations among middle school teachers' role conflicts, the correlations among 19 role conflicts factors, except for the administrative work factor and the work at the workplace factor, were positively significant. The correlation between work at home and work at the workplace was the highest, which means that the conflict of a role factor is connected to a conflict of another role. The high correlation between work at home and work at the workplace shows that stability and satisfaction at work are closely related to stability at home.
Thirdly, as for influence with regard to role conflicts, according to general characteristics, the teaching experience and school size of middle school teachers were shown to significantly influence the perception of role conflicts of the respondents. Overall, when teachers' teaching experience was less and teachers' schools were bigger, more perception of the role conflicts has been shown. This means that when teaching experience is less, the inexperience of teacher's role appears to have a possibility to influence the role conflicts. Meanwhile, when the school size is bigger, less friendly human relations appear to have a possibility to influence the role conflicts.