Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in Instructional Delivery Modalities, and the Role of School Leaders: a Study among Selected Private Schools in Abu Dhabi.
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Date
2022-07
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The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Teachers’ job satisfaction has always been a priority for educational leaders and policymakers. It directs the institution’s productivity and leaves different prints on teacher retention, absenteeism, burnout, academic performance, and turnover rate. Moreover, it impacts the outcomes of the instructional process as it influences the student's academic performance, behaviour, and even his social skills.
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to analyze the impact of the newly applied teaching modalities on teachers’ job satisfaction in selected private schools in Abu Dhabi. The primary teaching modalities that are of the research interest are the face-to-face modular, which represents the traditional teaching module that was commonly applied before the COVID-19 pandemic; the online delivery method which suggests the use of fully distance learning solutions for instruction; and the hybrid learning model, which is a mixture of both the online and face-to-face modules as some students receive instructions from home and at the same time some of their peers are attending the class physically at school. The second purpose of the study is to navigate the role of school leadership to help teachers cope with these models and find out the best ways they can increase their level of satisfaction.
The researcher adopted the mixed-methods approach to be used for his study. A survey was sent to 242 teachers and returned 151 responses. The result of the data analysis confirmed that there is a significant association between the new variable, teaching modality, and teachers’ job satisfaction. First, it is found that the traditional teaching model meets the highest level of teachers’ job satisfaction, then the distance learning, and lastly is the hybrid modality. This result is derived from the change in the outcomes of the satisfaction factors: job security, workload, in-class effort, work-life balance, remuneration, leadership support, students’ behaviour, and relationship with co-workers.
The qualitative aspect of the study is represented in semi-structured interviews conducted with ten teachers and ten school leaders. It explores the best practices that school leaders can apply to meet the teachers’ job satisfaction. For example, the interviews recommended that school leaders are invited to build an active channel of communication with their teachers, share the decision-making process with them, decrease the workload, raise the teachers’ autonomy, and establish a remuneration system.
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Keywords
teaching modality, job satisfaction, hybrid learning, distance learning, face-to-face learning, school leaders, United Arab Emirates (UAE), private schools, COVID-19