The Relationship Between Teachers’ Locus Of Control And Job Satisfaction: A Mixed Method Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between locus of control and job satisfaction perceptions of teaches working in state schools of Tire/Izmir through both qualitative and quantitative perspective. Study group pf the study is the teachers working in Tire/Izmir in 2015-2016 academic calendar. The quantitative data of the research have been obtained through 'Personal Information Form' and 'Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale' developed by Levenson (1974) and adapted to Turkish by Kiral (2012). Qualitative data of the research is gathered via semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers and it includes questions related to the internal locus of control, external locus of control, locus of control based on luck and faith, and job satisfaction (internal, external) perceptions in order to be able to get deeper information about the relationship between locus of control and job satisfaction perceptions of the teachers working at state schools. The quantitative and qualitative results of the study show that teachers' perception of internal locus of control is lower than their perception of locus of control based on others and luck/faith; their perception of internal job satisfaction is also lower than external job satisfaction. Moreover, another result of the study is that teachers' perception of internal job satisfaction is high and external job satisfaction is low. The relationship between teachers' perception of locus control and job satisfaction is the final result of the study. As a suggestion considering the results of the study, it can be suggested that teachers should be given more responsibility for taking decisions related to their profession, especially in their fields. © 2016 IOJES. All rights reserved