Teachers' Perceptions of School Board Autonomy Support and Chaos Predict Work-Related Outcomes

• In Event: Facilitating Student and Teacher Outcomes by Supporting Autonomy: Innovations and Implementation in the Field

Abstract

Purpose
This cross-sectional study examined how teachers’ perception of school boards’ autonomy-supportive and chaotic interpersonal styles related to teachers’ work-related outcomes via need satisfaction and frustration. This study also aimed at studying school boards’ autonomy-supportive and chaotic styles profiles.

Conceptual framework
Self-determination theory proposes that experiencing autonomy is integral to people’s optimal functioning, including teachers’ functioning at work (Cheon, Reeve, Yu & Jang, 2014). School boards have a critical impact on setting the tone for teachers’ work experiences, creating policies and creating systems of support to facilitate school functioning. However, school boards may be either autonomy-supportive or chaotic in their approach to providing guidance, which is likely to have consequences for teachers’ experiences of need satisfaction and frustration, as well as their work outcomes such as work engagement, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion.

Methods
Two-hundred and five teachers in Peru participated in the study: 94 (46%) taught kindergarten, 78 (38%) taught elementary school, and 33 (25%) taught high school. Most teachers (94%) worked in private schools and had an average of 13.69 (SD = 9.05) years of teaching experience. Participants were recruited through e-mail and voluntarily completed web-based surveys. The survey included Spanish translations of existing measures to assess teacher perceptions of autonomy-supportive and chaotic styles of school boards, as well as teachers’ need satisfaction and frustration, work engagement, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion.

To examine how teachers’ perception of school boards’ autonomy-supportive and chaotic styles related to work-related outcomes through teachers based-need experiences, a structural equation model (SEM; Mplus 7.4 version) using the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator and bootstrapping with 5000 re-sampled iterations was performed. In addition, cluster analyses were performed by adopting a combination of hierarchical and nonhierarchical clustering methods (Garson, 2014) in order to identify perceived autonomy-supportive and chaotic style combinations.

Results
SEM associations were calculate and fit indices indicated good fit (χ2= 1538.466, p<.001; χ2/df=1.674; RMSEA=0.057; 90% CI=0.052-0.062; CFI=.903; TLI=.901; SRMR=.074); See Figure 1). Relations between perceptions of school board autonomy-supportive and chaotic style and teachers’ work-related outcomes were mediated by need satisfaction-frustration. Also, direct effects from perceived school board autonomy-supportive style to teachers’ job satisfaction and engagement were significant.

Four profiles were identified through cluster analysis. Teachers who perceived high levels of school board autonomy-support and lower levels of chaos displayed the most optimal pattern of outcomes, whereas the opposite was true for teachers who perceived high levels of chaos and low levels of autonomy-support. If both autonomy- support and chaos were high, teachers displayed a less optimal pattern of outcomes psychological-functioning.

Significance
Overall, results highlight the importance of school boards creating an autonomy- supportive environment at schools in order to ensure optimal teacher performance.

Authors

• Lennia Matos, The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

• Leen Haerens, Ghent University

• Angel Angel Abos, University of Zaragoza

• Rafael Gargurevich, Peruvian University of Applied Sciences

• Andrea Koc, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru