A causal analysis of the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and student achievement

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)An important step in developing a high quality schooling system is recognising the importance of teacher job satisfaction. There is substantial research showing that the quality of teaching and learning is one of the most salient influences on students’ outcomes of schooling. Schools have been inundated with the implementation of a range of reforms focused on improving the quality of teaching, however few reform efforts have emerged which target teacher job satisfaction. As the teacher has a considerable influence on the attainment of favourable outcomes for students, it is likely that job satisfaction can affect the teacher, which can impact on the quality of service that is being delivered and ultimately student achievement. Despite the common assumption that teacher job satisfaction and student achievement are associated, there is limited evidence available regarding how they are related. Minimal research has been conducted investigating these relationships at the organisational level of analysis. Similiarily, the mechanisms through which this effect operates has received minor empirical attention. The primary aim of this study was to examine the association between teacher job satisfaction and student achievement. Secondary aims were to: (i) benchmark teacher satisfaction levels and ascertain what satisfies and dissatisfies those in the teaching profession, and (ii) examine the role of student motivation. Educators have often conceptualized motivation as an individual difference variable, something that some students simply have more of than others. This view of motivation can underestimate teachers’ contextual influence. The author tested a theoretical model positing that student motivation has the potential to mediate the association between teacher job satisfaction and student achievement. Quantitative data were gathered by questionnaires administered to 56 teachers and their 605 Year 5 students and achievement results obtained from the Australian National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy. To answer many of the research questions, a causal model was developed which allowed teacher job satisfaction effects to be analysed by testing hypothetical cause and effect relationships between constructs. Valid constructs were developed using SPSS, one-factor congeneric measurementmodels and a substantively meaningful interpretation of the literature. The specification and estimation of school, class and individual effects were measured by a multilevel decomposition of variance i.e. the proportion of variation in student outcomes attributable to school, teachers and students. Class effects accounted for approximately 30 per cent of the variance in student achievement, with 10 per cent of this explained by the teacher background and job satisfaction variables. The amount of variance at the class level in both student motivation and achievement paled in comparison with that of the individual level. However, the teacher background and job satisfaction effects accounted for a larger part, 18 to 95 per cent, of the variance in student motivation. The findings suggest that whatever the level of motivation each student brings to the classroom it can be made better or worse by what happens in that class. Of particular interest is that out of all the factors that teachers found satisfying and dissatisfying it was the ‘core business’ of teaching i.e. facilitating student learning and their professional self-growth that made a difference to student achievement. The 28 direct and indirect paths between the teacher job satisfaction and student achievement variables, lends support to the theoretical assumptions grounded in the literature, that teacher job satisfaction may influence student achievement directly and through motivational pathways. Emerging in educational literature has been analogies between quality teaching and student achievement, but with a reductive, almost non-teacher centred perspective that reduces the importance of both teacher well-being and performance. This study reconceptualises teacher job satisfaction as a generative metaphor, for educational research based on improving student outcomes. If teacher educators are to play a role in improving the quality of teaching that is being delivered, they need to address the complexities of the working environment where teachers are called to serve. Regardless of the amount of variance in student achievement teacher job satisfaction accounts for, the important point is that there is a portion of the variance that can be changed through efforts made to improve teacher job satisfaction