A PILOT STUDY OF TEACHER MORALE IN THREE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND
| Published date | 01 January 1976 |
| Date | 01 January 1976 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009747 |
| Pages | 94-106 |
| Author | JOHN BRADY |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XIV, No. 1 May, 1976
A PILOT STUDY OF TEACHER MORALE IN THREE
SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND
JOHN BRADY
A great deal of research into teacher morale has been carried out in the United States and
in Australia, particularly N.S.W. Little if any research into teacher morale has been car-
ried out in England and so the writer, who was visiting the country, decided to administer a
questionnaire to a sample of state secondary schools. The purpose of the investigation was
twofold: to demonstrate the practicality of undertaking further research and to decide if the
instrument in its present form was sufficiently sensitive to measure the morale of English
school teachers. For these reasons, the research had to be considered a pilot study. The
questionnaire was administered to three English state secondary schools with an 88 percent
response from the teachers. The data collected were analysed and some tentative conclusions
were reached. The main findings were that, in its present form, the instrument was not
suitable to measure teacher morale in England, that there was a need for future research
into teacher morale and that older teachers apparently displayed higher morale than
younger teachers.
INTRODUCTION
For some time research into teacher morale in both primary and secon-
dary schools has been carried out at the University of New England, Ar-
midale, N.S.W. Similar forms of research have been extensively in-
vestigated in North America. This present study was originally under-
taken to investigate the desirability of obtaining a cross-cultural sample
from England to link with the studies of teacher morale being undertaken
at the University of New England. The questionnaire was administered in
January, 1974.
Permission to administer the questionnaire was granted by the Educa-
tion Officer of the chosen town, and eventually three schools agreed to
allow the researcher to visit them and to conduct the investigation. For the
purpose of this study, the schools are called Birchfield Boys Grammar
School, Birchfield Girls Grammar School and Ditton Secondary Modern
School.
Prior to arriving in England, a diligent search through the index of
British Higher Degree theses failed to find any evidence of research into
teacher morale in Britain.1 The University of Liverpool was carrying out
research into school climate under the direction of Finlayson, who in
response to an enquiry by the researcher, wrote that he was unaware of
any studies of teacher morale in English schools.2 This was confirmed by
Thomas visiting London University from the University of
New
England,
JOHN BRADY is both Housemaster and Subject Master at The Armidale School. Formerly
a teacher in England, he holds the degrees of B.A.(Hons)(Hull) and M.Ed.Admin.(U.N.E.).
To continue reading
Request your trial