A COMPARISON OF TEACHER STRESS, COMMITMENT AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN SCHOOLS WITH DIFFERENT SUCCESS RATES
Date
2006-11-16T10:25:11Z
Authors
Khoza, Harriet Rivalani
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Abstract
It has been established that South African schools often experience vastly
different matric success rates, even in schools from the same areas, with similar
resources (Snyman, 1998). This study was conducted to compare teacher stress,
professional commitment and school climate in schools with different matric
success rates, in an attempt to uncover some of the reasons behind differing
pass rates.
The sample consisted of teachers from four high schools with different matric
pass rates. The schools were selected from twelve high schools in the same rural
area, same education district and circuit. The two high schools which performed
very badly were matched with two high schools which produced a hundred
percent pass rate in their recent matric results.
A questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. The questionnaires
consisted of the Job Stress Survey, Professional Commitment Scale, as well as
the Organisational Climate Index.
The research questions for the study were: (i) Do teachers from schools with
different matric success rates perceive the same sources of stress? (ii) Are
teachers in schools with different matric pass rates experiencing the same levels
of stress? (iii) Is there any difference between teachers’ perceptions of school
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climate in schools with different matric pass rates? (iv) Do teachers in schools
with different matric success rates differ in terms of their levels of professional
commitment?
The results indicated similarities in terms of the levels and sources of stress
among the teachers from the two school types, as no significant differences
between the schools were found. However, the teachers in schools with excellent
matric pass rates have higher levels of commitment, and perceive their schools
more favourably than the teachers in schools with poor matric pass rates.
Significant correlations were also found to exist between teachers’ professional
commitment and organisational climate.
These findings indicate that there is a need in South Africa to seek out ways of
improving the climate of the schools as well as teachers’ professional
commitment in order to produce quality education.
Description
Faculty of humanities/Arts
School of Human and Community Development
0318144e
khoza-hr@rau.ac.za
Keywords
Organasational, Climate, Occupational, Stress, Professional commitment