Year: 2019
Author: Collie, Rebecca, Malmberg, Lars-Erik, Martin, Andrew, Sammons, Pamela
Type of paper: Abstract refereed
Abstract:
Our study’s aims were to identify profiles of demands and resources experienced by teachers, and then to explore the extent to which distinct profiles are associated with meaningful differences in workplace outcomes. We also investigated school-level profiles by identifying the proportion of teacher profiles evident in different school types. We harnessed job demands-resources theory (Demerouti et al., 2001), which establishes the role of job demands (that hinder well-being), job resources (that support well-being), and personal resources (that support well-being). Two job demands (barriers to professional learning and student misbehavior), two job resources (teacher collaboration and input in decision-making), and one personal resource (feeling prepared to teach) were investigated.
Participants included teachers who participated in the OECD’s TALIS 2013 survey from Australia (n =6,670 teachers from 369 schools). Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four teacher profiles: the flourisher (low job demands, high job and personal resources), the persister (high job demands, low job resources, high personal resource), the coper (above average job demands, below average job resources, low personal resource), and the struggler (high job demands, low job and personal resources). We next examined the extent to which profile membership predicts teacher well-being (job satisfaction) and motivation (occupational commitment). Results showed that the flourisher evinced the highest job satisfaction and commitment, whereas the persister evinced the lowest outcomes. In phase two, we extended the teacher-level findings to identify school-level profiles using multi-level LPA, which reveals types of schools characterized by different proportions of the teacher profiles. A 2 profile school-level solution was appropriate revealing an unsupportive school profile (largely characterized by high levels of copers) and a supportive school profile (largely characterized by high levels of flourishers). Membership in the supportive school profile was positively associated with greater school-average job satisfaction and occupational commitment. Taken together, the findings have important implications for understanding how demands and resources typically align among major subgroups of teachers and schools. The findings also yield knowledge about how such profiles are implicated in teachers’ wellbeing and motivation outcomes.
Participants included teachers who participated in the OECD’s TALIS 2013 survey from Australia (n =6,670 teachers from 369 schools). Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four teacher profiles: the flourisher (low job demands, high job and personal resources), the persister (high job demands, low job resources, high personal resource), the coper (above average job demands, below average job resources, low personal resource), and the struggler (high job demands, low job and personal resources). We next examined the extent to which profile membership predicts teacher well-being (job satisfaction) and motivation (occupational commitment). Results showed that the flourisher evinced the highest job satisfaction and commitment, whereas the persister evinced the lowest outcomes. In phase two, we extended the teacher-level findings to identify school-level profiles using multi-level LPA, which reveals types of schools characterized by different proportions of the teacher profiles. A 2 profile school-level solution was appropriate revealing an unsupportive school profile (largely characterized by high levels of copers) and a supportive school profile (largely characterized by high levels of flourishers). Membership in the supportive school profile was positively associated with greater school-average job satisfaction and occupational commitment. Taken together, the findings have important implications for understanding how demands and resources typically align among major subgroups of teachers and schools. The findings also yield knowledge about how such profiles are implicated in teachers’ wellbeing and motivation outcomes.