Investigating Teacher Autonomy and Teacher Race/Ethnicity on Job Satisfaction: Implications for School Leaders

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: A Focus on Teacher and Leader Well-Being and Retention (Table 20)

Abstract

Using multilevel models, this study investigated whether there was a moderation effect between perceptions of school-level autonomy and teacher race/ethnicity on teacher job satisfaction using the National Teacher and Principal Survey. The participants included 23,220 teachers from 4,620 public schools representing a weighted sample of 2.42 million teachers. There were two statistically significant moderation effects that suggested when there were high levels of perceived school policy autonomy, White teachers were more satisfied compared to Black and Hispanic teachers, but when there were low levels of perceived school policy autonomy, Black and Hispanic teachers were more satisfied compared to White teachers. Educational implications for school leaders on the potential benefits of distributed leadership and collective responsibility are provided.

Authors

• Amanda Olsen, University of Missouri

• Jennifer Watters, University of Texas - Tyler

• Teresa Vega Uriostegui, University of Texas - Arlington