Attitudes, Perceptions, and Experiences of Casual Relief Teachers and Permanent Teachers in Victorian Schools
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Attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of casual relief teachers and permanent teachers in Victorian schools A thesis submitted in (partial) fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Psychology Lara Cleeland B.App.Sci.(Hon.)(Psych.), Grad.Dip.Beh.Sci., B.Ed. RMIT University School of Health Sciences Division of Psychology Bundoora, Australia March 2007 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgment has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; and any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. Lara Cleeland 30/3/07 ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my beloved sister, Dianne, who inspired me to pursue a career in psychology. iii Acknowledgements I am very grateful to those people who helped make this study possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my senior supervisor, Dr. John Reece, for his guidance and support over the last few years. His assistance in the analysis of the data along with his ongoing feedback and suggestions for improvement were greatly appreciated. Second, I would like to thank my second supervisor, Dr. Emma Little, for her advice and suggestions during the development and completion of the study. Third, I would like to thank the participating schools and employment agencies for their interest and cooperation in the study. The assistance provided by the schools and the employment agencies was essential for the distribution of questionnaires to teachers. Fourth, I would like to thank those teachers who agreed to participate in the study and who took the time to complete and return the questionnaires. Your responses and comments were invaluable. Fifth, I would like to thank the RMIT University undergraduate psychology students who assisted in the distribution of questionnaires to teachers at four of the participating schools. Finally, I would like to give special thanks to my parents, Paul and Valerie, for their love and understanding during the completion of my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Without their ongoing encouragement and support, these achievements would not have been possible. iv Table of Contents Page Abstract............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review............................................................................................ 10 Casual Employment in Australia............................................................................ 10 Casual Employment in Education........................................................................... 15 Terms and Definitions................................................................................... 15 Employment Practices and Procedures......................................................... 17 Roles and Responsibilities of Casual Relief Teachers.................................. 19 Routine duties...................................................................................... 19 Role expectations................................................................................ 21 Key Studies Focussing on Casual Relief Teaching....................................... 22 A Profile of Casual Relief Teachers.............................................................. 33 Demographic statistics........................................................................ 33 Reasons teachers undertake casual relief teaching.............................. 35 Areas of Concern for Casual Relief Teachers............................................... 36 Job security.......................................................................................... 37 Provisions and facilities...................................................................... 38 Information and communication......................................................... 39 Lesson management............................................................................ 42 Status................................................................................................... 45 Relationships with the school community.......................................... 50 Relationships with students................................................................. 53 Student management........................................................................... 56 Job satisfaction.................................................................................... 57 Job stress............................................................................................. 62 Summary................................................................................................................. 64 Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................... 65 Sample..................................................................................................................... 65 Schools and Employment Agencies.............................................................. 65 Participants.................................................................................................... 65 v Table of Contents Page Chapter 3: Methodology continued.................................................................................. 70 Materials.................................................................................................................. 70 Project information........................................................................................ 70 The Demographic Information Questionnaire.............................................. 70 The Issues in Teaching Questionnaire.......................................................... 71 Procedure................................................................................................................. 88 The development of the research materials................................................... 88 Data collection.............................................................................................. 89 Return rate..................................................................................................... 91 Data input, recoding, and exploratory data analysis..................................... 91 Data analysis strategy.................................................................................... 92 Chapter 4: Results............................................................................................................. 94 The Psychometric Properties of the Issues in Teaching Questionnaire and the Demographic Information Questionnaire Reasons for Undertaking Casual Relief Teaching.................................................................................................................. 95 The Internal Reliability of the Issues in Teaching Questionnaire................. 95 Information and communication subscale........................................... 95 Provisions and facilities subscale........................................................ 96 Student management subscale............................................................. 96 Status subscale..................................................................................... 97 Job security subscale........................................................................... 97 Job satisfaction subscale...................................................................... 97 Job stress subscale............................................................................... 98 Lesson management subscale.............................................................. 98 Relationships with the school community subscale............................ 99 Relationships with students subscale.................................................. 99 The Construct Validity of the Issues in Teaching Questionnaire................. 99 Information and communication subscale........................................... 100 Provisions and facilities subscale........................................................ 100 Student management subscale............................................................. 100 Lesson management subscale.............................................................. 101 vi Table of Contents Page Chapter 4: Results continued............................................................................................ 101 The Psychometric Properties of the Issues in Teaching Questionnaire and the Demographic Information Questionnaire Reasons for Undertaking Casual Relief Teaching continued.................................................................................................. 101 The Construct Validity of the Issues in Teaching Questionnaire continued......................................................................................................... 101 Relationships with students subscale.................................................. 101 Relationships with the school community subscale............................ 101 Status subscale.................................................................................... 102 Job security subscale..........................................................................