Investigating the Relationship between Job Satisfaction Levels of the Teachers in Educational Institutions and Their Attitudes towards Teaching Profession

Abstract

The basic purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction levels of the teachers in educational institutions and their attitudes towards teaching profession. Obtained results provided significant contributions for improving the quality of educational activities. Relational screening model as one of the quantitative research methods was used for carrying out this research. Relational screening models are the research models aiming to determine the presence and/or level of change between two or more variables and to specify the relationships between the variables. In the research, quantitative methods were used. For collecting the data, “Job Satisfaction Scale” and “Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession” were performed to all teachers included into the sample. The scale was on 5-point Likert type including 35 items. The data were analyzed on computer environment using SPSS 16.0 for Windows program. The three items teachers in educational institutions answered as “rarely” as average in the questionnaire of job satisfaction levels were “Do you find the profession you carry on as important and meaningful?” (4.3056), “Do you try to learn new things related to your profession?” (4.1944), and “Do you think you job is appropriate to your abilities?” (4.1389). For these three items, the answers of teachers were “rarely” or “never.” The three items with the highest average among the ones in the attitude scale towards teaching profession for the teachers in educational institutions were “Teaching is a profession requiring self-devotion” (4.6389), “teaching is a dignified profession” (4.5278), and “teaching is the leading of the professions with conscientious dimension” (4.5278), respectively. The answer of teachers for these three items was “I totally agree.” A negative weak relationship was found between job satisfaction levels and attitudes of the teachers in educational institutions towards teaching profession. Namely, as the job satisfaction level of teachers decreased, their attitudes towards teaching profession increased.  According to research results, attitudes of views of teachers towards teaching profession were high as they should be. However, teachers worked at a low job satisfaction level due to some disadvantages in different dimensions. This should be regarded as a problem decreasing their productivity in their profession, the reasons for this to appear should be investigated. While investigating this, school managers and students should also be included into the process as being in other grades of the educational activities.

Key Words: Professional life, productivity, job satisfaction, education