English teachers’ job satisfaction: Assessing contributions of the iranian school organizational climate in a mixed methods study

Abstract

This study sought out to explore the contributions of the Iranian school organizational climate to English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ job satisfaction in a mixed methods approach in a broad scope in Iran. To accomplish the objectives, using stratified random sampling, a total of 440 male and female teachers from state schools and private language schools in Tehran, Markazi, and Lorestan Provinces were selected. The quantitative data were gathered by means of a modified version of Horowitz and Zak’s (1979) School Organizational Climate Questionnaire and Spector’s (1985) Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. The qualitative data were also collected by administering interviews with 40 EFL teachers selected using stratified random sampling. Then, the data were analyzed through Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis, and content analysis. Results revealed that there exists a significant positive correlation between the school organizational climate and the EFL teachers’ job satisfaction. In addition, it was found that the job satisfaction is mostly affected by teaching load, principal leadership, autonomy and decision making, and intimacy and warmth factors. Besides, the findings disclosed that the school organizational climate is neither favorable nor positive such that it has negatively affected the Iranian EFL teachers’ job satisfaction. In the end, the pedagogical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed in-depth.

Keywords

• school organizational climate
• job satisfaction
• iranian school
• efl teachers