Research in Comparative and International Education Volume 7 Number 3 2012 www.wwwords.uk/RCIE
Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment in Swedish Junior High Schools MARA WESTLING ALLODI & SIV FISCHBEIN Department of Special Education, Stockholm University, Sweden
ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to explore the organisational characteristics of junior high schools, to identify typologies of work environments and to explore the relationships between the type of work environment and how schools function. The educational profession and the role of teachers have been influenced by policies inspired by the principles of new public management (NPM). The Swedish version of the Organizational Checkup Survey is a general and expanded version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The present work analyses the 16 items concerning energy, involvement and accomplishment (‘Relations to Work’) and the 29 items concerning workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values (‘Fields of Work’). The answers from 749 Swedish junior high school teachers from a stratified selection of 32 schools were analysed with a structural equation modelling approach. The means of the answers from the teachers from the same school were dichotomised and analysed with partial order scalogram analysis. The polarising variables contributing to the identification of four main profiles were reward and workload. There were gender differences: female teachers were more exhausted, felt more involved and were more dissatisfied with their workload than male teachers. There were also age differences, the younger teachers reporting, in particular, lower professional autonomy (control). The results show relevant differences between schools, and that teachers’ perceptions of their work environment can be considered an indicator of school quality. The results of the comparisons are related to the conditions of high efficiency and deprofessionalisation of NPM-inspired educational organisations, and indicate a possible link between school organisation and teachers’ perceptions of reward.
Background Teachers’ Work Situation as an Indicator of School Quality Teachers’ perceptions of their work environment are important both for their own well-being and because they indirectly affect the context of students’ learning. Teachers’ professional satisfaction is related to students’ achievement and well-being: they cannot offer their students an optimal learning environment and proximal processes of high quality if they themselves are burnt out and emotionally exhausted. Therefore it is opportune to investigate teachers’ perceptions of their work situation in educational research when we are interested in describing successful educational environments that are also healthy workplaces. Several studies show considerable differences between schools regarding organisational characteristics that influence the school ethos or climate and affect students’ results. These are teachers’ attitudes, the school’s organisational structure, composition, emphasis on learning, control, participation, responsibility and staff organisation (Rutter, 2000; see also Dorman, 2003). The Swedish National Agency for Education found in a report on school performance that teachers’ self-efficacy and ability to communicate with and motivate students were characteristic factors in effective schools, and these factors were particularly essential when the students were
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Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment from families with a low educational background. The quality of school management was also a relevant factor in effective schools (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2006). The Values of the Teaching Profession: eroded under performance regimes? In many countries, the educational profession and the role of teachers have undergone major changes during the past few decades. The principles of new public management (NPM; Adcroft & Willis, 2005; Diefenbach, 2009) have been applied in the educational system, leading to increasing top-down control, accountability, measurements and standardisation. NPM principles have been applied pervasively in all public service sectors and globally in most countries; in many they have also been supported by all major political parties. NPM is a basic set of assumption and value statements about how public sector organizations should be designed, organized, managed and ... how they should function. The basic idea of NPM is to make public sector organizations ... much more ‘businesslike’ and ‘market-oriented’, that is performance-, cost-, efficiency- and audit-oriented. (Diefenbach, 2009, p. 893)
A core element of NPM is the assessment of individual and organisational performance through standards, indicators, measurement and control systems. These tendencies affect the work of teachers, with increased formalisation and more bureaucratic routines. The market orientation of NPM, with the related commodification of the services offered, also means a shift from the traditional welfare concept and its shared civic and humanitarian social values (Diefenbach, 2009). Several authors have noted the risk that teachers will feel deprofessionalised and deskilled in accountability-based systems. The principles of NPM may lead to impoverished definitions of educational goals and values, and, accordingly, to a menace to teachers’ professionalism, well-being and pride in their work. Teachers may feel transformed into administrative bureaucrats, largely deprived of the rewards previously accessible to the profession (Mintzberg, 1983; Bottery & Wright, 2000; Ball, 2003; Adcroft & Willis, 2005; Walsh, 2006; Wong, 2006; Fitzgerald, 2008; Troman, 2008; Allodi, 2009). In a study of teachers’ identity, commitment and career in a performative school culture, Troman reported that: instrumentalism has become much more of a feature of a primary teacher’s professional life, with its advantages and disadvantages exemplified as primary teachers view themselves as competent implementers of instrumental policies ... while at the same time being debilitated by them. (Troman, 2008, p. 627)
Hargreaves and Shirley (2008, p. 136) report on the accountability policy of No Child Left Behind that only 15% of teachers think that it is improving local education: ‘U.S. teachers have suffered mightily through the nation’s new policies, and they resent it’. They advocate for alternative educational policies instead of those that are endorsed in the USA and that ‘cut funding, pit teachers and schools against one another, and reduce teacher professionalism to the hurried implementation of policymakers’ ever-changing mandates’ (Hargreaves & Shirley, 2008, p. 139). Several authors report that teachers’ autonomy has suffered: teachers experience increasing constraints when subjected to an extrinsic accountability that leads them into a technocratic, reductionist professionalism (Locke et al, 2005) or a constrained professionalism, where they retain a certain autonomy in the classroom, but are exposed to subtle or overt contextual pressures (Wills & Sandholtz, 2009). They can also be exposed to initiatives aimed at their professional development which result, paradoxically, in more limitations, control and regulation (Sandholtz & Scribner, 2006). In a study among new teachers in urban schools, Crocco and Costigan (2007, p. 512) found that the accountability regimen (narrowing of the curriculum, high-stakes testing) affected them negatively: ‘[the teachers] find their personal and professional identity thwarted, creativity and autonomy undermined, and ability to forge relationships with students diminished – all critical factors in their expressed job satisfaction’. While these policies have influenced most educational systems, the application of the principles can differ in different contexts. Comparisons of educational policies in Nordic countries seem to indicate that teachers’ professional autonomy has been influenced in differing ways. Helgøy and Homme (2007) compared the professional autonomy of teachers in Norway and in 377
Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein Sweden, two countries with similar democratic welfare systems. The differences between the two countries had increased: Norway has reluctantly decentralized education responsibility, and, to a limited degree, implemented market mechanisms in education. In Sweden ... [t]he break with centralism was important in restructuring the education system because it devolved responsibility to the local level in addition to implementing market mechanisms in education. (Helgøy & Homme, 2007, p. 233)
The authors observed that the Norwegian teachers working in a more centralised system gave examples of what is called an ‘old professionalism’, with their stronger collective professional autonomy. They showed decreased loyalty and increased criticism towards national policies, standards testing, and the narrowing and instrumentalist views of education. The Swedish teachers, on the other hand, perceived a greater freedom in the application of the curriculum, but complained about time-consuming administrative tasks, making teaching ‘almost ... a sideline’ (Helgøy & Homme, 2007, p. 240). However, they seemed to have accepted the demands of individualism and increased accountability that go together with the marketisation of education. Their attitudes towards national policies, control and national testing seemed, for the most part, more positive than those of their Norwegian counterparts. The conclusion of Helgøy and Homme was that accountability reforms may reduce the authority of the profession at the national level, even if teachers may perceive a certain level of individual professional autonomy. Another aspect related to the introduction of a performative culture is the rise of a public ‘discourse of derision’ (Ball, 1990; Osborne, 2007) or ‘trouble’ and ‘crisis’ of education and teaching, in reports and in the media (Thomas, 2003), a phenomenon that can also take the form of ‘teacherbashing’ (Ball, 1990; Karp, cited in Strauss, 2011). Webb et al, in a comparative study of primary teachers’ perceptions of pressures and rewards in England and Finland, reported how public criticism and denigration affected the teachers: The constant criticism of teachers and stories of incompetence in the media further fuelled by the negative messages about schools and teachers published by Ofsted [the Office for Standards in Education] were viewed as having undermined the self-image of teachers and that of the profession as a whole. Experienced teachers ... felt that their achievements over the span of their careers had been totally devalued. (Webb et al, 2004, p. 181)
In Sweden, features of the educational sector are also often objects of debate and criticism in the media and, if not yet bashed, teachers and the educational sector surely feel under siege (see, for example, Zaremba, 2011). Other motives of constraint and pressure reported in the comparative study by Webb et al (2004) related to changes in the educational system: curriculum reforms (a narrowing of the curriculum, loss of the opportunity to be creative, compartmentalisation, feelings of being ‘on a race track’), assessment reforms (pressure to spend time on test preparation, competition between schools) and work intensification (the feeling of not being able to do everything that is expected of you). On the other hand, teacher autonomy, commitment to children and social relationships were identified as central sources of reward in the teaching profession. Ryan and Weinstein (2009) suggested that the motivational aspects of self- determination theory can explain the unintended negative outcomes for teaching and learning of the high-stakes testing policies applied in many countries. It is not just gathering information about outcomes that is a problem, but rather the stakes contingent upon them. The authors concluded: HST [high-stakes testing] policies do ‘re-form’ educational practices by placing excessive emphasis on outcomes, and a corresponding inattention to the optimal processes and best practice methods of educating our young. From our view, schools are not factories with the aim of producing a standardized product, but rather contexts to foster human development ... Progress must be nurtured rather than force-fed, and that requires an understanding of the nutriments through which true growth occurs. (Ryan & Weinstein, 2009, p. 230)
A recent study of Swedish teachers’ practice of grading students gives another example of how the control and measurement regime may have affected teachers’ work and rewards. Mickwitz (2011) describes the conflicts experienced by teachers in the present accountability system, where grades 378
Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment are used to compare schools and also to select students for further education. Teachers feel pressure to set high grades both from their school heads and their students. Grading turns out to be time- and energy-consuming. Rather than having the students understand their subject and make progress, teachers find themselves devoting time and energy to making the students understand and accept their grades. Differences between Schools Even though NPM principles have been applied in the Swedish educational system for several decades, generally, throughout the country, there is reason to believe that there is scope for local organisational variations and differences at municipal and at school level. The differences between schools in Sweden in student composition, performance and other indicators of quality have, in fact, increased during the past 20 years. An extensive overview identified tendencies that combined to increase such differences: segregation, decentralisation, differentiation and individualisation (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2009). Organisation and management factors at school level may contribute to work situations that are more favourable and where teachers feel more satisfied with their accomplishments. In the present study, we investigate Swedish teachers’ perceptions of their work situation and also whether their views contribute to an understanding of the processes and conditions of effective and healthy educational organisations, where teachers feel involved and valued. Measuring Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Work Several reports on teachers’ work situation employ a version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Leiter & Maslach, 2001; Maslach et al, 2001; Maslach & Leiter, 2008). The fact that various versions have been developed can sometimes make a direct comparison of the results difficult. However, most studies have used the specific Teacher Burnout Questionnaire, finding a threefactor structure with emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment as the relevant areas (Byrne, 1993; Hastings et al, 2004; Aluja et al, 2005). All these factors target internal and personal reactions to the work situation. These factors tend to show a reciprocal influence, indicating that burnout might be a developmental process (Taris et al, 2005). Friedman (1993) conducted a smallest space analysis of the Burnout Inventory and reported that feelings of frustration, discouragement from work and a desire to quit teaching constituted the climax of burnout, while non-accomplishment at work was more distant. Comparisons between countries tend to show substantial differences in teacher satisfaction. The differences may be due to cultural variations regarding the teachers’ status and to organisational differences in the educational system. Differences have also been found between urban and rural teachers, between males and females, and between more experienced and less experienced teachers. Lau et al (2005), in a study of 1797 teachers in Hong Kong, found that they scored low on depersonalisation compared with a sample from the USA. Teachers who were younger, unmarried and less experienced were more burned out. Female teachers were more burned out with regard to exhaustion and accomplishment, but they were less depersonalised than male teachers. Unterbrink et al (2007) studied the perceptions of 949 secondary teachers in Germany. They found high levels of burnout symptoms (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment) compared to other professions. Male teachers reported higher depersonalisation and lower levels of accomplishment than female teachers. Teachers working in secondary modern schools reported more symptoms than teachers from grammar schools. Their conclusion was that the teachers’ working situation was characterised by an imbalance of effort and reward, implying high risks of developing burnout symptoms. Platsidou and Agaliotis (2008) studied the perceptions of work of special education teachers in Greece. They reported low levels of burnout among these teachers compared to those reported from northern Europe, North America and Australia. Abel and Sewell (1999) studied the relationship between working conditions and burnout symptoms among 98 teachers in rural and urban schools in Georgia and North Carolina in the USA. The levels of burnout symptoms were similar. However, time pressure and poor working conditions were
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Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein related to burnout for rural school teachers, while pupil misbehaviour and poor working conditions predicted burnout for urban school teachers. Theoretical Models The present main interest is the external aspects of teachers’ work conditions and what these aspects can say about the differences between schools. These six aspects are called ‘Fields of Work’ in the Organizational Checkup Survey (Maslach & Leiter, 2000): satisfaction with workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values. According to Maslach’s (2003) theoretical description, which was based on case studies in various workplaces, deficits and inadequacies in any of these fields can contribute to burnout and can consequently be considered as indicators of poor work situations and organisations. The factors that may have been affected by the NPM-inspired reforms could be workload, since efficient management implies maximal use of staff resources; control, since professional autonomy could have decreased; and reward and values, since the social recognition of the teaching profession is presently not at its highest. Fairness and community could vary between schools, depending on the local culture and conditions, but not directly as a result of NPM reforms. Two theoretical models have received particular attention in relation to the interaction between personal characteristics and the work environment. Both have focused on healthpromoting or risk factors in different professions. The demand-control model has been used in many studies of work organisations, and results indicate that if demands at work are high and the person has relatively little control of the situation, health risk factors increase (Karasek, 1979; Karasek & Theorell, 1990). The second model focuses on the balance between effort and reward in relation to personal commitment and explains adverse health in varying work situations (Siegrist, 2002). If the imbalance between effort and reward is too large and the assumption is violated that effort at work is spent as part of a contract based on the norm of social reciprocity, health risks occur. Siegrist et al (2004) have criticised the demand-control model for being excessively concerned with structural factors in the work situation and neglecting the component of personal vulnerability. They therefore assume that the contract is negotiated between employer and employee in order to achieve a balance. In addition to an imbalance in organisational factors such as high work effort and low reward at work, personal overcommitment can also jeopardise health. The effort-reward model has been applied to teachers’ work situations and seems to fit this kind of work better than a model based on lack of control (Unterbrink et al, 2007). The workload that teachers perceive is related to the work demands they meet and to the efforts they are expected to make in terms of scheduled hours of teaching and other administrative duties such as planning and evaluation, participating in meetings, school development activities, etc. On the basis of evaluation data from the Swedish National Agency for Education, we can expect a certain variation between schools, but general high work demands on teachers are to be expected, since one aim of the decentralisation of education to the municipalities in the 1990s was to make possible more efficient and cost-aware school organisations. The introduction of several reforms, new curricula, individual education plans, national tests and grading systems, etc. may also have influenced teachers’ workloads and the efforts necessary in order to manage their work. According to the criticism of the market-oriented NPM model in the public sector, there is a risk that its application affects negatively the traditional values and rewards of the teaching profession. The traditional culture could be eroded and deteriorate, with rising levels of stress and demoralisation among staff. Even where control of schools’ work results is tighter, teachers should be able to control several aspects of their work and to feel a certain degree of autonomy. The exercise of the teaching profession cannot be completely controlled, being still based on a certain degree of discretion and trust. Lack of control is thus not expected to be the major problem for teachers in this study, while reward and values may have been more visibly affected by the reforms introduced.
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Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment Aim The present aim was to analyse the characteristics of the Organizational Checkup Survey and, in particular, to explore teachers’ perceptions of the organisational characteristics of educational environments, in order to identify typologies of work environments and to investigate the relationships between type of work environment and how schools function. Method Instrument The general version of the Organizational Checkup Survey (‘Min Arbetssituation’/‘My Work Situation’; Leiter & Maslach, 2000) was employed in this study, since this is the version that is currently available in Swedish. This survey consists of a questionnaire and a manual that can be used in various workplaces – not only in schools, since the items do not refer to typically educational situations. Besides being general rather than specific for teachers, the Organizational Checkup Survey defines the concepts of ‘Relation to Work’ positively (as Energy, Accomplishment, Involvement) instead of negatively (Exhaustion, Low accomplishment, Depersonalisation). The first part of the survey consists of 16 items regarding ‘Relations to Work’: energy, accomplishment and involvement. To these items, the answers range from ‘never’ to ‘every day’ on a seven-point scale. The second part of the questionnaire, ‘Fields of Work’, consists of 29 items grouped in the areas of satisfaction with workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values (see Table I for examples of items from ‘Fields of work’). All these concepts are positively expressed, meaning that, for example, high scores on the workload scale correspond to the perception of an optimal workload. Conversely, low scores on the workload scale mean respondents are not satisfied with the work demands of their workplace. The answers range from ‘true’ to ‘not true’ on a five-point scale. Scale Workload Control Reward Community Fairness Values
Item 21. I have enough time to do the important tasks that I have to do 25. I have professional autonomy in my job 26. My work efforts are recognised by other people 31. We support each other in my work team 38. The school leaders treat the staff with equity and fairness 41. My values correspond to the values of the organisation
Table I. Examples of items from ‘Fields of Work’.
Sample and Procedure The teachers’ perceptions of their work situation were collected in 2005 within a longitudinal study of school effectiveness in Sweden (Grosin, 2004), together with information about students’ wellbeing and achievement, school organisation and school climate. The project was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Stockholm. The sample consisted of participating junior high school teachers from Swedish municipalities (grades 7-9, for pupils aged 14-16 – the last three years of compulsory education in the Swedish system). With regard to student achievement, the sample included high-, average- and low-performing schools with pupils from varying socio-economic and educational backgrounds. The 48 schools were invited to participate during the autumn of 2005. Material for 2000 teachers – consisting of the Organizational Checkup Survey, questionnaires, background forms eliciting gender, age, teacher training and work experience, letters of information and envelopes – was sent to the school principals with instructions regarding distribution to their teachers. The procedure allowed the teachers to return the questionnaires and forms directly to the project team, post-free, by ordinary mail. The questionnaire answers from 749 teachers, working in 32 schools from different municipalities, were received during the autumn of 2005 and are analysed in this study. Of the respondents, 235 (31.4%) were male and 494 (66%) female (data on gender was missing for 20 381
Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein answers). Teachers of various ages, experience and educational training were represented: 163 teachers were born between 1940 and 1949, 175 were born between 1950 and 1959, 167 were born between 1960 and 1969, 201 were born between 1970 and 1979, and 18 were born between 1980 and 1989 (age was not given in 25 cases). Analysis The structure of the survey has been analysed previously with the multidimensional scaling procedure in SPSS, PROXCAL (Allodi & Fischbein, 2009). The means from various groups of teachers were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The structure of the data at the individual level was analysed with confirmatory factor analysis with Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 2007) and STREAMS (Gustafsson & Stahl, 2006). In order to investigate the differences between schools, the answers from teachers in the same school were dichotomised and analysed with partial order scalogram analysis with base coordinates (POSAC). This method provides measurement scales for the individual assessments and uses a graphic technique to display multivariate data in two dimensions (Raveh & Landau, 1993; Shye, 1998, 2009). Results Reliability Analysis The reliability of the scales was tested with Cronbach’s alpha, giving for energy 0.88, for accomplishment 0.76, for involvement 0.80, for workload 0.82, for control 0.57, for reward 0.82, for community 0.80, for fairness 0.78 and for values 0.75. Thus, reliability appears satisfactory for all the scales except control. General Results and Comparisons between Groups of Teachers The respondents reported generally very high levels of accomplishment and involvement. Their energy, on the other hand, was, on average, lower. Looking at the six factors in ‘Fields of Work’, it is clear that the teachers, especially females, were, on average, unsatisfied with their workload. The means of male and female teachers’ perceptions of their work situation were compared with ANOVA. There were gender differences, female teachers being more satisfied than male teachers about the values in their work situation (male M = 3.4, female M = 3.6; F = 17.89) and feeling more involved (male M = 4.5, female M = 4.8; F = 10.19). Male teachers were more satisfied with their workload (male M = 2.9, female M = 2.5; F = 38.42) and their possibility to control their situation (male M = 3.7, female M = 3.6; F = 6.25), and were a little more energetic (male M = 3.9, female M = 3.7; F = 4.19) (see Table II). We also compared the means of the answers from teachers of different ages and experience. There were significant differences between the age groups on the scales of control, community and fairness. Scale Energy Accomplishment Involvement Workload Control Reward Community Fairness Values
Male teachers M SD 3.96 1.23 4.96 0.75 4.52 1.23 2.96 0.75 3.77 0.62 3.53 0.68 3.90 0.59 3.15 0.57 3.48 0.62
Female teachers M SD 3.76 1.22 4.92 0.77 4.80 1.06 2.59 0.75 3.65 0.58 3.43 0.76 3.91 0.61 3.08 0.55 3.68 0.57
Total M 3.82 4.93 4.71 2.71 3.69 3.46 3.91 3.10 3.62
SD 1.23 0.76 1.12 0.77 0.60 0.73 0.60 0.56 0.60
Table II. Means (M) and standard deviations (SD) on the nine scales in the survey for male teachers (n = 235), female teachers (n = 494) and total.
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Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment Teachers born in the 1960s felt less satisfied with the community of their workplace than teachers born in the 1940s (mean difference = -0.20), while teachers born in the 1950s were significantly more satisfied with the fairness of their workplace than those born in the 1960s and 1970s (mean difference = 0.18). There was a direct relationship between teachers’ age and their perception of control in the workplace, the younger teachers feeling significantly less satisfied with their control and professional autonomy than the older and more experienced teachers. A linear regression with ‘control’ as the dependent variable and ‘year of birth’ as the predictor showed the following standardised coefficients: beta = -0.12; t value = -3.46; p value = 0.001. Finally, we compared the means on the nine scales from teachers’ answers (n = 733) from the same school using ANOVA (see Table III). The differences between schools are significant for all scales except accomplishment. The teachers’ feeling that they worked effectively was not as influenced by their particular school context as their perceptions related to the other scales. The variation between schools was significant for the other scales, particularly those belonging to ‘Fields of Work’. Scale Energy Accomplishment Involvement Workload Control Reward Community Fairness Values
F value 1.76 1.42 1.62 2.65 2.99 2.24 2.64 3.05 3.73
p value 0.007 0.065 0.019 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Table III. Coefficients from the comparison of means from the answers of teachers (n = 733) in the same schools (n = 32) on the nine scales of the survey.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis We performed confirmatory factor analyses, with Mplus and STREAMS, of the teachers’ answers to the 29 items (items 17-45) included in ‘Fields of Work’ on the questionnaire. Table IV shows a six-factor solution with the following fit indexes: Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.053, SRMR (standardised root mean square residual) = 0.053, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.90 and TLI (Tucker-Lewis index) = 0.89. Work 17 Work 18 Work 19 Work 20 Work 21 Work 22 Control 23 Control 24 Control 25 Reward 26 Reward 27 Reward 28 Reward 29 Community 30 Community 31 Community 32 Community 33 Community 34 Fairness 35
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Work 0.71 0.48 0.80 0.83 0.62 0.47
Control
Reward
Community
Fairness
0.39 0.72 0.45 0.89 0.88 0.62 0.48 0.38 0.85 0.81 0.78 0.62 0.50
Values
Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein Fairness 36 Fairness 37 Fairness 38 Fairness 39 Fairness 40 Values 41 Values 42 Values 43 Values 44 Values 45
0.27 0.54 0.76 0.78 0.75 0.76 0.45 0.60 0.71 0.62
Table IV. Coefficients of the confirmatory factor analysis of the 29 items in ‘Fields of Work’.
In Table V, the correlations between the latent variables of work, control, reward, community, fairness and values are presented. These relationships constitute the structural model. Control Reward Community Fairness Values
Work 0.51 0.25 0.21 0.35 0.26
Control
Reward
Community
Fairness
0.48 0.35 0.40 0.54
0.38 0.40 0.41
0.34 0.42
0.62
Table V. Correlation coefficients between the six latent variables from ‘Fields of Work’.
The coefficients of the structural model indicate that the latent variables measured with ‘Fields of Work’ are interrelated but distinct, since the correlation coefficients are in a moderate range: from about 0.20 for the lowest to 0.60 for the highest. Fairness and values showed the highest correlation coefficient (0.62), while satisfaction with workload (work) was only weakly related to community, reward and values. Comparison between Schools The means of teachers’ answers for each school were analysed with POSAC in order to identify the typologies of the working environments of the schools in this sample. POSAC is a non-metric technique in which a number of variables are used to describe a population. The scalogram technique was developed by Guttman (1950) and further developed by Shye (1985, 1998, 2009), with multiple scaling theory and the POSAC/LSA (Lattice Space Analysis) programme. Each school was assigned a profile (structuple) based on the school scores on each of six variables: 1. Values 2. Community 3. Fairness 4. Reward 5. Control 6. Satisfaction with workload The mean scores for each school were used in the POSAC analysis and the scores were dichotomised following the procedural recommendations of POSAC (POSAC/LSA version 2.0, 1998). The analysis of the dichotomised scores on the six variables from 31 schools identified 17 profiles (see Table VI). (The scores from one school were excluded since they were based on only one respondent.)
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Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment ID 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Profile 222222 212122 122221 221122 222211 112122 212112 122112 121211 212111 111221 221111 121111 111211 111112 112111 111111
Frequency 3 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 6
Table VI. Profiles obtained from the POSAC analysis, where ‘ID’ is the number of the profile, ‘profile’ is the dichotomised school scores on the six variables of ‘Fields of Work’, and ‘frequency’ is the number of schools displaying the corresponding profile (correspondence coefficient = 0.92; score-distance weighted coefficient = 0.99).
All six ‘Fields of Work’ variables were associated with the Joint (J) axis (see Table VII). This indicated that the schools could be ordered along this axis according to the perceptions of all six fields of work taken together. The J axis represented a general ‘work environment’ scale, with the schools with the highest levels placed in the top right-hand corner and those with the lowest in the bottom left-hand corner, at the opposite end of the diagonal J. The other diagonal, the lateral (L) diagonal, indicates what differentiation among the schools is present and according to which type of field of work. Variables 4 (reward) and 6 (satisfaction with workload) were the polarising variables. Among the six variables from ‘Fields of Work’, they contribute to the identification of a basic typology of schools. Satisfaction with workload was monotonically correlated with the X axis (1.00), while reward was correlated monotonically with the Y axis. Figure 1 represents the 17 profiles in a twodimensional configuration of the base coordinates that correspond to the measurements in Table VII. Variable
Joint (J)
Lateral (L)
1. Values 2. Community 3. Fairness 4. Reward 5. Control 6. Satisfaction with workload
0.96 0.95 0.90 0.91 0.95 0.85
0.41 -0.05 0.00 -0.99 0.13 0.99
Base coordinate X 0.93 0.79 0.75 0.16 0.84 1.00
Base coordinate Y 0.68 0.80 0.75 1.00 0.73 0.07
Table VII. Measures of weak monotonicity between each observed variable and four directions.
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Figure 1. A two-dimensional configuration of the scalogram, from Profile 1 in the top right-hand corner to Profile 17 in the bottom left-hand corner.
POSAC analyses the profiles and identifies which combinations of scores contribute in grouping the schools into different types. Variables 6 (satisfaction with workload) and 4 (reward) concur to identify four types of school environment (see Figure 2): A. Schools that were low in reward, low in satisfaction with workload and low in all the other four variables (Profile 17). Their teachers felt overloaded and not rewarded (exploitation). B. Schools that were high in reward and low in satisfaction with workload (Profile 11). In this school profile, the teachers felt rewarded but overloaded (overcommitment, sacrifice). C. Schools that were low in reward and high in satisfaction with workload (Profile 15). The teachers here did not feel overloaded by work but neither did they feel that their performance was rewarded (lack of meaning, routine). D. Schools that were high in reward, high in satisfaction with workload and high in all the other four variables (Profile 1). Their teachers felt both rewarded and that they could manage the workload required (engagement, professional skills). The combination of the two basic variables identified four types of organisation that were more or less oriented towards exploiting staff resources or requiring sacrifices from staff for a just cause, more oriented towards routine execution of the educational mission, or, finally, more oriented towards professional accomplishment. The other variables contributed to identifying further subgroups of school profiles within the mean structure presented in Figure 2.
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Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment
Figure 2. A model of the basic typology of schools identified with the two polarising variables, 4 (reward) and 6 (satisfaction with workload). The diagonal (J line) goes from A to D.
The control variable had an accentuating role on high reward and on high satisfaction with workload, while fairness had an attenuating role on low reward and low satisfaction. The roles of the values and community variables were less clearly defined. We now consider the characteristics of the schools that belong to the four typically differentiated profiles A, B, C and D. Data on the performance of schools adjusted for school social composition and data on the social composition of schools’ populations (the percentage of parents with post-secondary education) are available from the Swedish National Agency for Education and are employed to compare the schools in the four profiles. Of the six schools in Profile 17 (A; exploited), four were low performers and two were relatively high performers, with a high educational level among the parents. The one school in Profile 11 (B; overcommitted) was a relatively low performer. One of the schools in Profile 15 (C; routine) was a relatively high performer and the other one was a low performaer. The three schools in Profile 1 (D; professional skills) were, on the other hand, similar: high performers with a fairly low parental educational level. Interpretation of the results of this review of the characteristics of the schools in the various profiles is not easy, since they are not straightforward. It seems, however, that high school performance as shown in pupils’ results can be associated in certain cases with teachers’ positive perceptions of their work situation. School composition as revealed by parental educational level could be meaningful for teachers’ perception of reward as a moderator between high performance and perceptions of reward. In fact, high-performing schools with a relatively low educational level in the pupils’ background can be associated with teachers’ perceptions of high reward, while this is not the case in high-performing schools with a high parental educational level. In these schools, the teachers seem to perceive a rather low reward for their work. Profile 17 (A), where the teachers perceive low reward, are dissatisfied with their workload and have low scores on the other four scales, includes two high performers with a high parental educational level. Possible explanations could be that the low satisfaction these teachers experience relates to specific situations in the organisation. In many cases, staff resources are assigned to schools based on school composition (for example, parental educational level). Schools with a high educational level in the pupils’ background could, in certain cases, be penalised by these compensatory rules and could have classes enrolling more students than schools with a different pupil composition. This would perhaps influence teachers’ perceptions of their workload, however, rather than reward. It is also possible to hypothesise that these teachers may feel more rewarded when they succeed with pupils from rather disadvantaged backgrounds, feeling that what they do is really meaningful and makes a more important contribution to the pupils’ future opportunities. 387
Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein In low-performing schools, no clear-cut profile emerges, but low-performing schools are not found among the schools that are high in all the variables (corner D in Figure 2). It seems that the best work environment for the present respondents is accompanied by high performance, although a school’s problematic work environment is not necessarily associated with low pupil performance (corner A in Figure 2). The position of a school profile on the diagonal between A and D (J line) could represent a joint quality measure of the school environment, related not only to teachers’ perceptions, but also – at least broadly – to the efficacy of the learning environment. Discussion The Instrument Confirmatory factor analysis shows that the variables included in ‘Fields of Work’ describe distinct, though related, aspects of the teachers’ job situation and suggests that these factors can be used in further analyses. Since the factors of ‘Fields of Work’ are not highly correlated, it could be considered reductive to summarise them in a joint perceptions of work index, since some qualitative differences between the schools’ work environments would be overlooked and remain unrecognised. POSAC allows analysis of the combined schools’ profiles on the scales of ‘Fields of Work’, without summarising them in a single measure. Differences among the Teachers The prevailing burnout symptoms among Swedish teachers include reported exhaustion, which also relates to very low satisfaction with their workload. Our respondents reported relatively high levels of accomplishment, and their reported involvement with their pupils seemed not to be so negatively affected. The female teachers were more exposed to exhaustion and less satisfied with their workload, while the male teachers reported higher symptoms of depersonalisation. The gender differences resembled those reported in several other international studies, where male teachers seem less affected by workload and less exhausted (Gursel et al, 2002; Antoniou et al, 2006). Female teachers may, conversely, be more susceptible to heavy workloads and work stress (see also Bellingrath et al, 2009). It is interesting that other studies also report that female teachers have a more positive perception of their involvement and engagement. This was the case for female teachers in Germany and Turkey, who felt less depersonalised than males (Gursel et al, 2002; Unterbrink et al, 2007). These findings across various cultural contexts could indicate general gender differences in the reactions to work stress among teachers. The burnout pattern prevailing in male teachers (more depersonalisation, cynicism) could be interpreted as an externalising reaction, while the ‘female’ pattern (more exhaustion) could be interpreted as an internalising reaction. Epidemiological surveys show consistent gender differences in mental health symptoms (more anxiety and mood disorders among women and more externalising symptoms among men) across countries and cohorts, even if some of the gender differences seem to decrease as a function of changes in the traditional gender roles (Seedat et al, 2009). Swedish society is characterised by a widespread gender equality, but even if the perceptions of Swedish male and female teachers related to the other variables are rather similar, the same typical gender pattern that is emerging from other international studies seems to be operating among Swedish teachers. They feel generally effective and are hard-working, reporting a rather high level of accomplishment, but, at the same time, have a fairly low satisfaction with their workload. This indicates not only that these Swedish educational workplaces have become largely efficiency-driven, often perceived by the staff as very demanding, but also that teachers stoically try to keep up the required pace, even if they feel discontented. The relationship between age/experience and feelings of control and professional autonomy can be interpreted as a natural consequence of years of professional experience, but it could also indicate that the application of NPM principles in the educational system has, in fact, negatively affected teachers’ professional autonomy. Limiting professional autonomy could be more sensible for younger and less experienced teachers, since they may feel more compelled to adapt to prevailing organisational conditions. The more experienced teachers could manage to find ways to maintain their professional autonomy better. In contrast with the results of other studies (Lau et al, 388
Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Environment 2005; Antoniou et al, 2006), ‘our’ younger and less experienced teachers did not perceive more work stress than their colleagues, just significantly less professional autonomy. It is certainly encouraging that teachers’ low age and experience do not turn out to be major risk factors for burnout in Swedish educational workplaces, as seems to be the case in other countries. Still, perceptions of low control among less experienced teachers could be considered a worrying sign of general deprofessionalising tendencies in Swedish education. Differences between older and younger teachers were also found by Troman (2008) concerning their commitment to the profession. In that study, the older teachers had an initial vocational commitment and a strong service ethic, while the younger teachers had various other pragmatic reasons for being committed to teaching. Hildebrandt and Eom (2011), examining motivational professionalisation factors among US teachers, found that younger teachers were more motivated by financial gain and external validation than their relatively older colleagues. These differences together could indicate changes and general processes in the teaching profession and in educational organisations across countries. The study of differences between teachers of various ages and experience levels could be useful to investigate, compare and understand the effects of NPM-inspired reforms. Differences between Schools We expected to find differences between schools in the teachers’ perceptions of their job situation, and did find significant differences on eight of the nine scales, the exception being accomplishment. Accomplishment is the scale with the highest mean value and there could be a ceiling effect in the instrument, depending on the overall high demands on teachers in efficiency-oriented Swedish schools. This could also indicate that in all of the schools investigated, and independently of the other characteristics of their job situation, the teachers perceived that they were getting through a great deal of work. The POSAC analysis of the variables included in ‘Fields of Work’ indicated that the variables identified belong to the same domain and, moreover, identified the variables on which the profiles of the schools on the score of ‘Fields of Work’ polarise. The reward and satisfaction with workload variables may be considered the basic variables on which the school job environment mainly differed, while the other four variables in the instrument attenuate, accentuate or modify variables on this basic structure. Control – the variable that indicates the teachers’ perception of their professional autonomy – seems to accentuate the variables of reward and satisfaction with workload. Thus, when teachers are satisfied with their professional autonomy, they are also satisfied with either their workload or reward, or both. Fairness seems to attenuate the same variables: a perception of fairness in the workplace could contribute to less negative perceptions of reward and/or workload. The structure identified in the analysis at school level combines perceptions of reward with those of workload, and seems to corroborate the theory of the effortreward imbalance as a basic component of the teachers’ perceptions of their work situation (Siegrist, 2002; Siegrist et al, 2004). The analysis of other school characteristics (for example, school composition and performance) suggests that there are a variety of profiles of schools, but it seems possible to identify characteristics of the job situation that go together with measures of organisation and student performance at school. Some of the differences in working conditions may interact in specific ways with school organisational characteristics and also with the composition of the student group at that school. An explanation of the low perceived reward in schools with a rather high educational background level could be that the teachers may feel more occupied with grade-setting – sometimes even being pressed to award high grades – in such schools. They must, consequently, invest a great deal of energy and time into grading, instead of the more rewarding activities of teaching. It could also be hypothesised that in high-performing schools, the teachers feel more rewarded where the parental educational background level is low, since they feel that they can ‘make a difference’ for their pupils; correspondingly, they feel less rewarded in schools with high pupil educational background. The possibility of a moderating role of school composition on teachers’ perception of reward is not corroborated by other findings, to our knowledge, and should be investigated further. 389
Mara Westling Allodi & Siv Fischbein In descriptions of school organisational functioning and when planning educational interventions aiming to change schools’ organisational climate and performance, it could be useful to combine measurements of the perceptions of teachers with the more obvious measures of resources and performance. Schools that seem to perform well, considering pupils’ achievements alone, can be workplaces where the teachers are deeply unsatisfied and feel exploited and insufficiently rewarded. This study shows considerable differences between schools in their job environments. These differences may remain underrated if the evaluations and comparisons include only the pupils’ performance. A description of these various typologies and of the interplay between their various facets may be necessary to reach a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities between these organisations. An indication and practical application in school organisational development of the results of this analysis of teachers’ perception of their work situation is that it could be vital to improve teachers’ satisfaction with their workload – for example, by assigning adequate staff resources to the school – while in other cases it could be necessary to increase the perceptions of reward they receive from their work. In some schools, it could be necessary to reduce the perceived workload and increase the reward. While teachers’ workload has been an object of concern and discussion in Sweden, the possibility of declining perceptions of reward that can be associated with NPMinspired educational reforms has probably not received the same attention – for instance, by teachers’ organisations. The present study also indicates that teachers’ perceptions of control and professional autonomy are closely related to perceptions of high satisfaction with their workload and/or of high reward from their work. The schools where the teachers seem most satisfied are those with mixed and relatively low pupil educational backgrounds, and where the pupils perform well. Case studies of these successful schools, where the teachers are satisfied with their professional autonomy, do not feel overloaded with work, and are engaged and rewarded, despite the risks of deprofessionalisation and demoralisation related to NPM policies, could contribute to an understanding of the additional characteristics and conditions of these organisations, and could be a task for further research. Acknowledgements The data was collected under Research Programme 2004-1489, granted by the Educational Sciences section of the Swedish Research Council. The data was analysed under Research Programme 2008-4733, also granted by the Educational Sciences section of the Swedish Research Council. Many thanks go to Professor Jan-Eric Gustafsson and to Professor Samuel Shye. The first part of the results of this study has been published in 2009 in conference proceedings. References Abel, M.H. & Sewell, J. (1999) Stress and Burnout in Rural and Urban Secondary School Teachers, Journal of Educational Research, 92(5), 287-293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220679909597608 Adcroft, A. & Willis, R. (2005) The (Un)intended Outcome of Public Sector Performance Measurement, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 18(5), 386-400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550510608859 Allodi, M.W. (2009) Byråkrati, marknad eller lotteri? Organisation och styrning av utbildning: effekter och risker för specialpedagogiska verksamheter, in P. Adolfsson & R. Solli (Eds) Offentlig sektor och komplexitet: om hantering av mål, strategier och professioner. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Allodi, M.W. & Fischbein, S. (2009) Job Engagement and Perceptions of Work Environment in Swedish Junior-High School Teachers: a methodological study, in D. Elizur & E. Yaniv (Eds) Theory Construction and Multivariate Analysis: applications of facet approach. Tel Aviv: FTA Publications. Aluja, A., Blanch, A. & García, L.F. (2005) Dimensionality of the Maslach Burnout Inventory in School Teachers, European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 21(1), 67-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.21.1.67 Antoniou, A., Polychroni, F. & Viachakis, A. (2006) Gender and Age Differences in Occupational Stress and Professional Burnout between Primary and High-School Teachers in Greece, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(7), 682-690. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690213 Ball, S.J. (1990) Politics and Policy Making in Education: explorations in policy sociology. London: Routledge.
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MARA WESTLING ALLODI is Professor of Special Education at Stockholm University, Sweden, where she works on course development, teaching and supervision in teacher programmes, special education programmes and doctoral courses. Professor Allodi’s areas of interest as a research scientist are the organisation of resources and support for special needs students, the characteristics of psychosocial environments in educational settings, the social climate of learning environments and its relationship to students’ well-being and self-concept, understanding students’ experience in educational situations, and the development of instruments for measuring school climate and organisational characteristics. Correspondence:
[email protected] SIV FISCHBEIN is Professor Emerita of Special Education in the Department of Special Education at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her main research area is the interaction between biological and environmental influences in the development of children and youth. She has long been involved in twin research as a means to investigate sources of variation in individual growth patterns. Since 1990, her main research focus has been on teacher education and, specifically, the possibilities or difficulties that are created in the interplay between individual prerequisites and educational influences at different levels (individual, group, organisational and societal). Correspondence:
[email protected]
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