The aim of this study is to examine and compare the experiences of teachers in each of the different types of public secondary schools in NSW.10 The specific
teacher experiences that are of interest are those that are likely to differ between the various types of public secondary school. In this regard, particular attention was devoted to the school-level changes that were discussed in Chapter 3, such as parental expectations, student mobility, the nature and extent of work
intensification and principal leadership. The broader context for these likely influencing factors includes the systemic changes that have affected teacher autonomy and control across the education system and the societal factors that have brought about significant policy reforms in the education sector since the 1980s.
As discussed in Chapter 2, these systemic changes are contributing to teacher turnover at the school-level (OECD 2005) and from a policy perspective teacher shortages have become a major concern (Hanushek et al. 2004). The participants in this study were predominantly teachers who were currently working in the public secondary school system in NSW. As such, while actual resignations could not be examined, examining the experiences and attitudes of employed
10
The design, methodology and instruments used in this study were approved by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (See Appendix A).
teachers provided an opportunity to examine teachers’ intentions to quit. While contemplating resignation does not necessarily result in actual quitting
(Lachman & Diamant 1987), ‘quit intentions’ are a significant predictor of employee turnover (Griffeth, Hom & Gaertner 2000: 483). Of interest in this study, therefore, was whether or not any differences in teachers’ experiences were related to variations in teachers’ job dissatisfaction as measured by
intentions to quit. Three aspects of quit intentions were examined: 1) intention to resign from the school; 2) intention to resign from the teaching profession; and, 3) intentions to resign from the public sector education system (Hanushek et al. 2004).
Research design
The mixed-methods research design has been posited as a ‘third research paradigm’ (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004: 14). This pluralistic approach to methodological design aims to provide more robust research outcomes by combining the insights offered through both qualitative and quantitative
approaches (Green, Caracelli & Graham 1989; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004). In essence, the mixed-method approach aims to improve the accuracy of analysis and interpretation by combining data collected from qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the same dimensions of a research problem (Day,
Sammons & Gu 2008; Gage 1989). Through a mixed-method approach, the research questions are able to be explored and the findings validated through multiple and independent data collection approaches (Day et al. 2008; Gage 1989; Jick 1979). A total of 77 teachers and four union officials took part in the
qualitative phase of the study and 1,237 teachers provided responses in the quantitative phase.
Another advantage of combining research techniques to examine complex social situations is that the sequencing of different methodologies can assist in clearly defining the critical issues for exploration and analysis (Buchanan 1999; Seiber 1973). The particular approach to sequencing the mixed-method approach used in this study is to use qualitative methodologies – focus groups, key informant interviews and participant interviews – to provide insights which then informed the subsequent survey design and quantitative analysis.
Strengths and limitations
Each methodological approach has its strengths and limitations. A mixed-
method design provides a pragmatic approach for both maximising the benefits and over-coming the constraints inherent in a single methodological approach (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004). Nevertheless it is instructive when analysing and interpreting research findings to understand the key advantages and
disadvantages of both the quantitative and qualitative paradigms and of the specific tools being put to use in any research design.
The positivist philosophical foundation of quantitative methodologies argues that researchers need to remain detached and uninvolved in the object of study so as to reliably test their stated hypotheses (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004). Purists of the qualitative approach, however support an interpretivist paradigm, in which the researcher is trying to understand multiple constructed subjective realities (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004). As is the case with this thesis, when examining an unexplored area of research, a mixed-method design is particularly powerful. The qualitative research typically uses an inductive approach to guide the initial framing of the research problem and allows detailed exploration of the dynamics of the situation. In contrast, the typically deductive nature of the quantitative approach supports the exploratory stages of the research by allowing hypotheses to be generated and tested (Mutha 2007). Similarly, the specific data collection tools used in qualitative and quantitative approaches are integrated in a mixed-method design to validate each phase of data collection so as to gain a deeper and richer understanding of the issue being investigated (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004; Mutha 2007).
In qualitative approaches, interviews are the ‘primary means of assessing the experiences…subjective views…and accounts of events’ (Whipp 1998: 54). Interviews allow for a deeper and richer exploration of issues and, in semi- structured interviews the interviewee can reflect on responses and clarification can be gained. Due to the expense of one-on-one interviews however, focus groups have been increasingly employed to complement data collected through individual interviews (Morgan 1994). This approach broadens the pool of
participants and expedites data collection while providing the additional benefit of allowing the interaction between participants to enhance the exploration of the topics of interest (Morgan 1994).
While both qualitative techniques are valuable means of exploring issues that are difficult to quantify the skills and biases of the interviewer can heavily influence the reliability and validity of the data collected (Strauss & Whitfield 1998). In this regard, survey techniques offer greater transparency with how the research was conducted (Strauss & Whitfield 1998). The rigor of survey techniques and the capacity to standardise metrics enable the magnitude of the particular
phenomenon of interest to be established (Whitfield 1998) and for a broader range of topics to be covered (Strauss & Whitfield 1998). In a mixed-method
design, the potential for key relationships to be misunderstood, are cross-
validated against the qualitative data collected (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004).
Grounded theory
As has been discussed earlier in this thesis, little is known about the experiences of teachers in the different types of public secondary school in NSW and indeed, whether or not the experiences of teachers differ by school type. The study
therefore took a ‘grounded theory’ approach to examining teachers’ work (Glaser 2006; Glaser & Strauss 1967).
Grounded theory is an inductive approach that begins with an initial systematic study of the phenomenon of interest so as to develop theoretical concepts and generate hypotheses (Glaser 2006; Glaser & Strauss 1967). A grounded theory approach is associated with theory-building research (Layder 1993) that aims to generate categories for analysis rather than imposing a pre-existing analytical framework on data collection (Glaser 2006; Glaser & Strauss 1967).
Thus, while the literature provided essential context and background to the factors that are affecting teachers and their work, it was the categories that were discussed by the respondents themselves in the qualitative phase of the research,
rather than any pre-conceived hypothesis testing, that became the focus of empirical examination (Glaser 2006; Glaser & Strauss 1967).
Conceptualising schools and regions
Initially, the different types of public secondary schools in NSW were
conceptualised dichotomously. That is, the experiences of teachers in traditional comprehensive public secondary schools were to be compared with the
experiences of teachers in all other types of public secondary schools. The public secondary schools that are not traditional comprehensive schools are referred to as non-comprehensive public secondary schools.
As will be discussed in more detail below however, the initial stages of the qualitative fieldwork led to a revision of this approach. Ultimately, where possible, the experiences of teachers in each of the following different types of public secondary schools were specifically examined and compared:
• Comprehensive schools;
• Selective schools (including partially selective schools); • Specialist schools;
• Junior colleges; and, • Senior colleges.
In contrast, the initial approach to examining the effect of geographic region on teachers’ experiences of work started from a broad perspective to enable both metropolitan and non-metropolitan influences to be examined and compared. As discussed in Chapter 2, the vast majority of non-comprehensive public secondary schools are located in major metropolitan regions.11 Thus in the initial stages of
the study, teachers from three metropolitan areas were included in the study but, to obtain a non-metropolitan perspective, teachers from a major regional centre and teachers from a rural centre were also included. As discussed in more detail below however, following the first stage of the study, the geographic areas of interest were considerably narrowed to only include teachers from western and south-western Sydney.