A COMPARISON OF TEACHER STRESS, COMMITMENT AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN SCHOOLS WITH DIFFERENT SUCCESS RATES

[摘要] It has been established that South African schools often experience vastlydifferent matric success rates, even in schools from the same areas, with similarresources (Snyman, 1998). This study was conducted to compare teacher stress,professional commitment and school climate in schools with different matricsuccess rates, in an attempt to uncover some of the reasons behind differingpass rates.The sample consisted of teachers from four high schools with different matricpass rates. The schools were selected from twelve high schools in the same ruralarea, same education district and circuit. The two high schools which performedvery badly were matched with two high schools which produced a hundredpercent pass rate in their recent matric results.A questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. The questionnairesconsisted of the Job Stress Survey, Professional Commitment Scale, as well asthe Organisational Climate Index.The research questions for the study were: (i) Do teachers from schools withdifferent matric success rates perceive the same sources of stress? (ii) Areteachers in schools with different matric pass rates experiencing the same levelsof stress? (iii) Is there any difference between teachers’ perceptions of school6climate in schools with different matric pass rates? (iv) Do teachers in schoolswith different matric success rates differ in terms of their levels of professionalcommitment?The results indicated similarities in terms of the levels and sources of stressamong the teachers from the two school types, as no significant differencesbetween the schools were found. However, the teachers in schools with excellentmatric pass rates have higher levels of commitment, and perceive their schoolsmore favourably than the teachers in schools with poor matric pass rates.Significant correlations were also found to exist between teachers’ professionalcommitment and organisational climate.These findings indicate that there is a need in South Africa to seek out ways ofimproving the climate of the schools as well as teachers’ professionalcommitment in order to produce quality education.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand