Professional Empowerment to Improve Job Satisfaction of Primary School Teachers

Abstract Teachers' job satisfaction and their professional empowerment are two main factors which contribute to education improvement. Purpose of the present study is to investigate and record teachers' perceptions of their professional empowerment and their beliefs about their job satisfaction. Also the impact of teachers' demographic and professional characteristics on their perceptions of job satisfaction and the possible correlations between job satisfaction and professional empowerment are examined. The research method is the descriptive and correlative survey, with the use of a self-report questionnaire. Teachers' perceptions of their professional empowerment are measured by the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES), while their job satisfaction by the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). The results indicate that teachers who do not have a permanent position in a school and they are obliged to change school environment every year, or they have to work in more than one school each year, they feel less empowered and satisfied. Findings of this study also show that while there is no differentiation as far as it concerns the sex, the marital status, the age, the studies or the previous experience, there are differentiations according to labor relations and the number of schools a teacher works in a year. Regarding job satisfaction, the majority of respondents are of the view that there is an average overall job satisfaction. In addition the research shows that there is a positive correlation between job satisfaction and empowerment. This paper provides useful data about the issue of teachers' job satisfaction as well as their empowerment and the factors that influence their feelings about their overall job satisfaction and empowerment. The improvement of labor relations and the decrease in the number of schools teachers work in a year, would essentially contribute to their job satisfaction and empowerment