Pakistani Secondary School Teachers’ perspective of Meaning of Work

Abstract

This qualitative study indicates the perspective of Pakistani secondary school teachers on the meaning and importance of work in their lives. The data was collected through in-depth recorded semi-structured interviews from 17 secondary school teachers and were analysed using narrative analysis. After a two-stage coding, the themes that developed included the economic meaning of work, psychological meaning of work, changes that make work more meaningful and reasons why working has lost its meaning. Findings indicated that work is an innate character of humans and it’s the source of satisfaction. Still, if parents become part of the system, more teaching resources and techniques applied, teacher opinion given importance would give more meaning to teachers’ work. When management is not supportive, teachers face disrespect and do not get due appraisals, or a salary increase made teachers’ meaning of work lost. In this way, this research facilitates the educational administration and leaders to understand the teachers and their needs which would help them appreciate the teachers properly and provide them with the incentives they deserve. It would also enhance the quality of teachers’ work and the quality of education. It is found that the teachers would work more enthusiastically if their opinions were given importance.