Job satisfaction among Greek secondary teachers and the role of school

Abstract

It appears that during financial crisis, Greek school teachers are not influenced by external factors for their job satisfaction other than the significant influence of their school principals. Since satisfied teachers consist the most important factor for effective schools, the aim of the present study was to investigate within the context of secondary education, the level of job satisfaction concerning school principals’ performance, impact and managerial abilities. Variables such as “school premises”, “provision of logistics and teaching materials”, “job relationships”, “teachers’ personal development”, “school planning”, “administrative issues” and “principals’ praise, criticism and behaviour” were investigated through a quantitative method with 139 participants. The results revealed that gender did not affect their level of job satisfaction concerning the first three variables whereas age and marital status made significant difference in terms of their satisfaction concerning principals’ impact on teachers’ personal development. The variable of age affected their satisfaction regarding school principals’ contribution on administrative issues. Positive associations were found between the examined variables. Although most of the teachers felt satisfied being at school, they indicated that “partiality” was the weakest personal trait of many school principals and stated that “Fairness” was the best qualification a school principal should have.