College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item INDEPENDENT SCHOOL HEADS: TIME USE, TIME-USE PREFERENCE, AND SATISFACTION OR DISSATISFACTION IN LEADERSHIP ROLE(2014) Wolcott, Ann Elizabeth; Hawley, Willis D.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Time is a quantifiable element measured by the clock. School leaders have time to use according to the demands of their work. There is little, if any, evidence that the time-use preferences of school leaders are given consideration. This doctoral dissertation (1) examines the time that leaders spend on the responsibilities associated with their work, (2) identifies the leaders' time-use preferences, (3) identifies the school characteristics and personal characteristics of the leaders who participated in the survey instrument, (4) examines the data obtained from the survey, and (5) analyzes the statistics to determine the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the leaders regarding the use of their time. Results suggest that experienced independent school leaders are satisfied with the way they spend their time at work. Other results concerning satisfaction or dissatisfaction are specifically related to the configuration of the schools' grade levels. This dissertation's results will contribute to the field of independent school research and encourage more research on leaders in Episcopal schools in particular and schools in general.Item The effects of classroom autonomy, staff collegiality, and administrative support on teachers' job satisfaction(2013) Lasseter, Austin; Lasseter, Austin; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of my dissertation is to determine which job-related factors are most likely to explain teachers' sense of satisfaction with their current job. Based on previous research (Fairchild et al., 2012; Lee, Dedrick, & Smith, 1991; Perie & Baker, 1997), I hypothesized that teachers' perceptions of classroom autonomy, staff collegiality, and administrative support would have a greater impact on teachers' job satisfaction than demographic characteristics of either teachers or schools. My study used a dataset of 19,130 teachers in 2,420 schools drawn from the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The study employed a two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) technique. I modeled the key constructs at both the individual and collective levels by conceptualizing autonomy, collegiality, and support as individual teachers' perceptions and as the average of all teachers' perceptions in the school. My dissertation found that individual teachers' perceptions of classroom autonomy, staff collegiality, and administrative support had a greater impact on teachers' job satisfaction than demographic characteristics of schools and teachers. In addition, my study found that school-wide perceptions of classroom autonomy, staff collegiality, and administrative support had a significant effect on teachers' job satisfaction over and above the effects of individual teachers' perceptions. The study found significant negative effects on job satisfaction for teachers working in Catholic schools and for teachers working in schools where poverty was perceived to be a school-wide problem. Finally, my study determined that sufficient between-school variance existed in the outcome to justify future school-level policy interventions aimed at improving teachers' job satisfaction. Based on my findings, I recommend that policy makers who are concerned about addressing low levels of job satisfaction among teachers should begin by improving factors related to classroom autonomy, staff collegiality, and administrative support, since these are likely to have a meaningful impact. I also recommend that future research should employ a narrow definition of the outcome focusing on teachers' satisfaction with their job rather than their satisfaction with teaching in general.