Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemTeacher burnout and its relationship to social support( 1989)The purposes of this study were to examine the nature of burnout and social support among Victorian Government high school teachers, and to describe the extent to which sources and types of social support were statistically significant predictors of teacher burnout. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected by a 52-item questionnaire which was mailed through school principals to a random sample of 550 Victorian Government high school teachers. The 491 usable returns represented an 89 percent response rate from teachers, and 229 or 82 percent of government high schools. The questionnaire developed for this study and entitled, Job Survey for Victorian Government High School Teachers contained four sections: Section A, Background Information; Section B, Social Support; Section C, Human Services Survey; and Section D, Personal Comments. The study was descriptive and used statistical techniques such as means, standard deviations and frequencies in the analysis of data. The study was also exploratory and used step-wise multiple linear regression analysis, analysis of variance, .t-tests and factor analysis in data analysis. Victorian Government high school teachers recorded low to moderate mean scores for Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization burnout compared with the established norms, but a higher than average level of Personal Accomplishment burnout. Male teachers reported higher levels of Depersonalization burnout compared with female teachers. Higher levels of burnout across all sub-scales were recorded by teachers who stated a preference to leave education, who indicated their work was not at all or seldom interesting, and who perceived their work to be considerably to extremely stressful. The youngest teachers recorded the highest levels of Emotional Exhaustion burnout, and the most experienced teachers recorded the lowest on this sub-scale and on Depersonalization burnout. Higher levels of Personal Accomplishment burnout were recorded by teachers who had been in their current position for more than six years, who reported a fifty percent consistency between teacher .training and task, and who desired to leave education. Teachers considered types of social support were more helpful in coping with burnout than sources of support. Listening/concern/trust was identified as the most helpful type and peer group teachers the most supportive source. The youngest teachers reported the principal provided the least support: and female teachers provided more support and considered social support more helpful to them than did male teachers. The principal as a source of support was the statistically significant predictor of each of the burnout sub-scales. Emotional Depersonalization burnout were Exhaustion best predicted and by listen.ing/concern/trust and time as types of support, while Personal Accomplishment was best predicted by advice/information, listening/concern/trust and feedback. Sources and types of social support identified by teachers as the most helpful to them in coping with burnout were peer group teachers, listening/concern/trust, and feedback. It was concluded that the high level of Personal Accomplishment burnout in Victorian Government high school teachers was related to insufficient recognition and rewards, and inadequate administrative support.
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ItemAspects of the under-representation of women in administrative positions in secondary schools in Victoria, as related to a comparison of male and female career aspirations( 1983)A questionnaire survey methodology was used to investigate the reasons pertaining to the under-representation of women in educational administration. The particular aspect focused upon, was a comparison of the aspirations of male and female teachers. Ninety teachers were surveyed, 46 male, and 44 female assistant class teachers from four regional high schools in the Geelong City area. The findings indicated that male teachers have higher ultimate professional aspirations than female teachers, and this is evident in their more active seeking of promotion. There were similarities in male and female responses over a number of factors related to perceived reasons for teaching, and those reasons which motivate promotion seeking. Of the factors investigated as deterrents for teachers seeking promotion, there was concurrence over the range of factors perceived as most important and least important but the factor related to lack of interest in promotion was particularly significant for female teachers. It was concluded that female lack of interest in promotion and career advancement stems largely from the socialization process and sex-role stereotyping of the female role which neither encourages nor provides incentive for females to aspire to career success to the same extent as males.