Job satisfaction and professional development among teachers working under two parallel top-down reforms

ABSTRACT

Following the increasing demand to improve educational systems, ‘top-down’ reforms were developed targeting teachers’ work conditions alongside new professional development policy. The current study aimed to examine the perceptions of teachers who are employed under two reforms in parallel, regarding their job satisfaction and professional development. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 teachers who work simultaneously under the two reforms. Based on analysis technique that focuses on content, four themes related to teachers’ job satisfaction were identified: workload and multiple tasks; inherent satisfaction; the struggle between personal and professional identities; and ‘broken’ routine. In addition, three themes regarding professional development were found: forced and limited; unnatural and disconnected to the field; and workload as ruling out a profound process. Taking all the themes into consideration, three portraits of teachers were found: the praising, the flowing, and the embittered. Implications and meaning of the findings will be further discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational reforms
• teachers
• job satisfaction
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yael Grinshtain

Yael Grinshtain, PhD, is a senior lecturer in the Department of Education at Tel-Hai Academic College. Her research interests include gender and ethnicity in the teaching profession and in educational leadership; parental involvement at home and at school including patterns of help giving and help seeking; and social aspects of periphery/center localities and rural education.

Orit Avidov Ungar

Orit Avidov Ungar is the Dean of the School of Education and senior lecturer at Achva Academic College and the Open University. Her research explores the empowerment and professional development of teachers and the leadership of organizational change in education systems with an emphasis on the implementation of innovative technologies in education systems.

Eliza Barenboim

Eliza Barenboim has a Master’s degree in Education Systems Administration. She is a teacher at an elementary school in Israel.