The Examination of Teachers’ Perceptions Relating to Job Satisfaction: A Mixed-Method Study

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the perceptions of job satisfaction of teachers working in public schools. A concurrent design is one of the mixed methods research designs where qualitative and quantitative research methods are used together. The research was designed with the phenomenology pattern, one of the qualitative research designs, and the hatch pattern, which is one of the quantitative research types. The data in the qualitative part of the research were analyzed by content analysis method. The data in the quantitative part was analyzed with statistical methods such as mean and standard deviation. While the sample of the quantitative part consists of 324 teachers, in the qualitative part, 43 teachers determined from the same sample constitute the study group. The quantitative results showed that the teachers had a high level of internal satisfaction and a moderate external satisfaction perception. It has been concluded that teachers have a medium level of job satisfaction perception in all job satisfaction. The qualitative results revealed that the teachers had negative views on social prestige, adequate pay, being appreciated by the manager, and positive views on being satisfied with the workplace, being satisfied with the manager, and feeling conscientious about their work. It is expected that the research results will provide data for both policymakers in education and school administrators who affect teacher job satisfaction in practice.