Distributed leadership and teacher job satisfaction in Singapore
| Pages | 127-142 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-12-2016-0140 |
| Date | 05 February 2018 |
| Published date | 05 February 2018 |
| Author | Darlene García Torres |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Distributed leadership and teacher
job satisfaction in Singapore
Darlene García Torres
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy,
University at Buffalo –The State University of New York,
Buffalo, New York, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Singapore is a country with low teacher attrition rates and high performance on international
assessments (TIMSS 2011/2015 and PISA 2012/2015). Consequently, its education system is often considered
as a model for other nations. The purpose of this paper is to extend research on teacher job satisfaction in
Singapore and provide comparative information for other education systems.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper presents a secondary analysis of data from the
Organization for Econo mic Cooperation and Deve lopment’s 2013 Teach ing and Learning Interna tional
Survey with a focus on relat ionships among teacher and princ ipal perceptions of distribut ed leadership and
teachers’job satisfac tion in Singapore. Hie rarchical linear modeli ng is applied to investi gate teacher
job satisfaction with principal perceptions and aggregate teacher perceptions of distributed leadership
as school-level ( level 2) variables and i ndividual teacher perc eptions of distributed l eadership as a
level 1 variable.
Findings –Results indicated that distributed leadership significantly predicted teachers’work and
professional satisfaction; higher distributed leadership scores were associated with higher satisfaction scores.
Originality/value –The significant positive relationship between distributed leadership and both
dimensions of job satisfaction after accounting for individual teacher characteristics is a new finding in the
Singapore schooling context.
Keywords Teachers, Retention, Leadership, Autonomy, Job satisfaction, Distributed leadership
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the USA, high teacher turnover has been found to negatively impact student academic
achievement (Ronfeldt et al., 2013). This is partially attributable to the loss of teachers with
higher levels of education and stronger academic backgrounds (Clotfelter et al., 2007).
Teacher turnover is disproportionately greater in under-resourced schools serving large
populations of low-income and minority students and lower in resource-rich schools serving
students of higher socioeconomic status (SES)( Borman and Dowling, 2008; Boyd et al., 2011),
contributing to a disparity in educational opportunity by race/ethnicity and SES.
In order to expand educational equity, many US organizations and initiatives have
focused on improving teacher quality in schools serving low-income and minority students.
These schools have especially been targeted as sites for teacher recruitment programs such
as Teach for America, which places recent college graduates in both urban and rural public
schools, and New York City Teaching Fellows, an alternative certification and teacher
placement program in urban public schools for college graduates. Few initiatives have
focused explicitly on retention and lowering teacher turnover rates. Recruitment of new
teachers may do little to increase equity if teachers subsequently leave schools or the
profession relatively quickly. As Ronfeldt et al. (2013) have shown, high teacher turnover
can actually worsen student achievement. Efforts that focus on recruitment and specific
qualities of teachers alone without careful attention to factors supporting retention may
actually exacerbate inequality. Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 56 No. 1, 2018
pp. 127-142
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-12-2016-0140
Received 1 December 2016
Revised 20 July 2017
Accepted 21 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
The author would like to thank Dr Seong Won Han for her guidance in this study.
127
Leadership
and teacher
job satisfaction
Purpose
Insights into policies related to teacher retention in disadvantaged schools can be drawn
from a large body of literature, much of it based on US data. Less is known about successful
teacher retention policies in other countries. This paper extends research conducted
outside the USA, with special attention given to Singapore because it has frequently been
considered a model for education policy, largely due to its high rankings on international
assessments such as TIMSS 2011/2015 and PISA 2012/2015.
While the social, political, and economic context of Singapore may shape student
achievement in distinct ways, education policies in Singapore can provide a fitting contrast
for better understanding education systems in other countries, specifically in relation to
teacher retention and turnover. Turnover of public school teachers in the USA was at
16 percent in the 2011-2012 school year (Goldring et al., 2014), while only 3 percent was
reported by the Singapore Ministry of Education (2013). Prior to that year, the Ministry of
Education (MOE) implemented policies promoting school autonomy and local control over
professional practice (Dimmock and Yong Tan, 2013). In 1997, the MOE implemented an
initiative called the “school cluster project,”in which 22 schools were given autonomy in
resource allocation, curriculum and instruction, and assignment of teachers (Tan and Quek,
2001, p. 532). Since then, the MOE has expanded this initiative to 28 clusters of schools and
has shifted toward granting greater “autonomy of administrative and pedagogical authority
to individual schools”within a highly ce ntralized school system (Dimmock an d
Young Tan, 2013, p. 326). Such policies may translate into higher levels of teacher
retention if local control is distributed among teachers for greater teacher autonomy.
Teacher autonomy has been noted as a significant predictor of teacher job satisfaction in
both the USA (Ingersoll, 2003) and Singapore (Sim, 1990; Tan and Quek, 2001). Studying
leadership quality within the context of an autonomous school environment may provide
more information about successful teacher retention policies relevant to other national
contexts. This paper focuses on the following research questions:
RQ1. Within the Singapore schooling context wherein teacher autonomy –a factor
known to influence teachers’leaving intentions in both Singapore and the USA –is
a policy emphasis, is distributed leadership significantly related to teachers’job
satisfaction?
RQ2. After controlling for other workplace conditions, does the degree of distributed
leadership in a school moderate relationships between teachers’individual
characteristics and their job satisfaction?
Based on previous research that shows significant strong relationships between teachers’
job satisfaction and leadership quality and teachers’organizational commitment and
distributed leadership in different national contexts, the first hypothesis, distributed
leadership, will be significantly related to teachers’job satisfaction in Singapore
(Hulpia et al., 2011; Johnson et al., 2012; and others). Given that school environment
variables such as workplace conditions have been consistently documented as strong
predictors of teacher job satisfaction, the second hypothesis, school-level measures of
distributed leadership, will moderate relationships between teachers’individual
characteristics and their job satisfaction.
Theoretical framework
Distributed leadership describes an approach to leadership that considers the participation
of multiple actors in its execution. It is different from previous conceptualizations of
leadership as residing within the domain of a sole individual in a formal leader role and
focuses on interactions among individuals as shaped by specific contexts and activities
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