The purpose of this study was to examine job satisfaction among special-school teachers from Gwangju and jen-nam province in an effort to lay the groundwork for improving special education and increasing teacher job satisfaction in those regions. The ...
The purpose of this study was to examine job satisfaction among special-school teachers from Gwangju and jen-nam province in an effort to lay the groundwork for improving special education and increasing teacher job satisfaction in those regions. The research questions were posed as follows:
First, to what extent are special-education teachers from Gwangju and jen-nam province satisfied with their job?
Second, do the type of school foundation and the service area, gender, position, teaching career and age of special-education teachers make any differences to their job satisfaction?
The subjects in this study were 415 teachers from special schools in the city of Gwangju and south Jeolla province, on whom a survey was conducted. The responses from 365 teachers were analyzed.
For data handling, SPSS 10.1 program was employed. To find out the impact of gender, position and type of school foundation on job satisfaction, t-test was implemented, and one-way ANOVA was conducted to identify the influence of service area, leaching career and age on job satisfaction. The level of significance was set on p<.05.
After their job satisfaction was measured with 30-item questionnaires covering seven factors, the following findings were obtained:
First, they got higher mean scores in human relations and recognition, two of the seven job-satisfaction factors, and their satisfaction with school administration and compensation was below the average. But there was no definite deviation as the collective average ranged from 2.89(school administration) to 3.47(interpersonal relations), The deviation was within ±0.5 from average point 3.0, which seemed to indicate that their general disposition, mind- set and attitude to life were not uncommon.
Second, out of the seven factors, teacher benefit programs(2.66) and reward(2.65) were least satisfactory.
Third, regarding expertise factor, the teachers put every possible effort into enhancing their expertise by going up to graduate school, etc, though they weren't pleased with the regulations that called on them to gain higher degrees to get promoted. They found it rewarding to teach and be respected by people, and they took pride in their profession.
Fourth, as a result of conducting a cross-tab between public and private school teachers, the public school teachers were more satisfied with job in charge, including instruction, guidance and other works, than the private school teachers. However, their satisfaction with all the other factors was less than that of the private school teachers.
Fifth, when another cross-tab was implemented among the teachers from Gwangju, rural and urban areas in jen-nam province, one notable fact was that those from Gwangju expressed lower job satisfaction than the others did. It's necessary to take a deep look at what made them dissatisfied.
Sixth, as the third cross-tab was carried out by gender, the job satisfaction of the female teachers was significantly lower than that of the male teachers, especially in terms of expertise and working environments.
Seventh, as a result of fulfilling the fourth cross-tab by position, career and age, those who were head teachers, older or had a longer career expressed higher satisfaction at work, Interpersonal relations and recognition, but they found compensation less satisfactory. This tendency corresponded to general social trend.