Introduction

School leadership still resembles the tradition that picks men

over women (Chabalala, LW 2006). Traditionally, women are not seen

as leaders because of the belief that they are obedient and have

trouble when it comes to decision making (Astin and Leland, 1991-4).

The Minister of Education way back in the year 2001,Professor Kader

Asmal said in his parliamentary address on May 24,2001 that the

education system should start moving from a framework to action

called, “tirisano” which means cooperation. This implies that intentions

inside the framework, like the Employment Equity Act and related

frameworks, must be supported and purposely implemented to level

out the injustices of the past, which also contributed to, for instance,

gender imbalance in school leadership. When selecting school leaders,

considerations regarding women should be made even if not

prioritized.

Barriers to promotion are factors that prevent an individual to

have a professional level of achievement. It can be classified as either

intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic barriers are the so called “lacks” that are

within women that may be a result of a person’s lack of self

confidence, work experience, excessively emotional reactions,

dependence and etc. Extrinsic barriers indicate environmental

variables that affect women into the management hierarchy of the

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teaching profession. Social attitudes, family commitments and lack of

mentors are examples of extrinsic barriers that prevent women from

being promoted to certain positions in school (Greyvenstein, 1989-22).

The objective of this study is to determine the relationship

between the barriers that prevent women teachers from being

promoted and its effect unto the teachers’ job satisfaction and attitude

towards work. This study serves as information of what female

teachers consider as hindrances to getting promoted and also to

formulate methods on how to ensure the equality in terms of

promotion among male and female teachers.

Significance of the study

The outcome of this study may inform people of the result of

certain barriers that prevent women teachers of getting promoted to

their job satisfaction and work attitude. This may be useful to the

following:

Female teachers.They can ensure that their chances for promotion

are equal to male teachers.

Administrators.They can properly design job specifications and

requirements in selecting school leaders.

Department of Education. They can monitor gender equity of

teachers in schools.

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Researchers.This may serve as a guide for future studies regarding

gender equity in schools and factors affecting teacher promotion.

Statement of the problem

This study aims to know the relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and its effect to the teachers’ job

satisfaction and their attitude towards work. Specifically, it seeks

answers to the following questions:

1) Is there a significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their job satisfaction?

2) Is there a significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their attitude towards work?

3) What are the factors that women teachers mostly consider as

barriers to promotion?

Hypotheses

From the given problems above, Item #3 is hypothesis free.

1) Ha: There is a significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their job satisfaction.

Ho: There is no significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their job satisfaction.

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2) Ha: There is a significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their attitude towards work.

Ho: There is no significant relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their attitude towards work.

Scope and limitation of the study

The study entitled “Barriers to promotion of women teachers and

its effect on their job satisfaction and attitude towards work” only

covers the factors affecting the chances for promotion of women

teachers in three (3) different departments namely, (1) Math

Department, (2) Science Department and (3) English Department. This

study will only be conducted inside the premises of Digos City National

High school and its respondents will only be the selected female

teachers in each of the three different departments of the school.

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Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study comprised two sets of

variables; the independent variable which is the barriers to promotion

of women teachers and the dependent variable which is their job

satisfaction and their attitude towards work.

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Figure 1.1

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Barriers to promotion of women teachers

Job satisfaction Attitude towards

work

Review of Related Literature

Teachers’ Attitudes towards Work

The word “attitude” is defined within the framework of social

psychology as a subjective or mental preparation for action. It defines

outward and visible postures and human beliefs. Attitudes determine

what each individual will see, hear, think and do. They are rooted in

experience and do not become automatic, routine conduct.

Furthermore, “attitude” means the individual's prevailing tendency to

respond favorably or unfavorably to an object (person or group of

people, institutions or events) (Morris & Mailto, 2005). Attitudes can be

positive (values) or negative (prejudices). According to Reinter and

Kinaki (2007), there are three components of attitudes: affective,

cognitive and behavioral. The affective component is a feeling or an

emotion one has about an object or situation. The cognitive component

is the beliefs or ideas one has about an object or situation, whereas the

behavioral component of attitude reflects how one intends to act or

behave towards someone or something (Reinter & Kinaki, 2007). In

most situations, the three components appear concomitantly to shape

teachers' classroom postures, through direct and indirect interaction

between society, school and teachers (Elite, 1994). Moreover,

teachers' styles and attitudes are strong context outcomes rooted in

experience. They do not become automatic routine behaviors, in the

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sense that they are developed through very slow interactions (action

and reaction), and become well-established constructs for each

individual only after some time (Carr, 1990). In that sense, as noted by

Carr (1990), attitudes can be modified only by each individual, when

they become aware, through elements and evidence, that new

postures would be better to deal with the surrounding world.

Attitudes towards work mean perceptions that affect how

employees perform in their positions. In the mid-1970s, Trophy and

Good (1974) reported that many educational researchers have

supported the idea that teachers’ attitudes and expectations can be

self-fulfilling prophecies. Trophy and Good (1974) also proposed that

once teachers develop a particular attitude or belief, they may begin to

treat students differently in ways that help bring about the outcomes

that they Facial Ahmad and Raffia Sahak expect. On the other hand,

according to Petty and Cacioppo (1986), attitude and behaviour are

defined comprehensively as individuals' general evaluations about

themselves, others, other objects, events and problems. Briefly,

attitudes do predict people’s behavior. In order to understand

teachers’ attitudes and understand how attitude reflects teachers'

behavior, we could examine many components of attitude in context of

organizational behavior. In this study, we would like to focus on four

components of attitude used to assess teachers ‘attitude towards

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work: job satisfaction (Mitchell & Lassen, 1987), commitment,

communication, and alienation (North craft & Neale, 1996).

According to Mitchell and Lason (1987), in the organizational

behavior field, job satisfaction is the most important and frequently

studied attitude. It reflects the extent to which people like their jobs

(Kreitner & Kinicki, 2007). As expected, teachers’ working conditions,

assessed by their level of job satisfaction, affect teacher-student

interaction. Hence, higher levels of job satisfaction improve teachers'

morale, which students perceive positively.

‘Commitment’ is a term used to distinguish those who are

‘caring’, ‘dedicated’, and who ‘take the job seriously’ from those who

‘put their own interests first’(Nias, 1989). Commitment is an important

work attitude, because committed individuals are expected to be

willing to work harder to achieve their goal and remain employed

(Kreitner & Kinicki, 2007). Nonetheless, according to Kelchtermans

(2005), teachers do not all have the same level of commitment to their

job. For some teachers, commitment is a major part of their lives, and

they afford it extensive consideration and high priority. Others may

perceive indifferently, seeing teaching as just a job (Kelchtermans,

2005). Meanwhile, reflexive account of research over a 20-year period

with 54 primary schoolteachers indicated that the word ‘commitment’

appeared in almost every interview (Nias, 1989). In a different context,

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Jackson, Boostrom and Hansen(1993), Goodlad (1990) and Sockett

(1993) have reported the moral purposes of teachers, using words

such as ‘courage’, ‘integrity’, ‘honesty’, ‘care’ and ‘fairness’. It is easy

to see how these words may be associated with commitment. The

more obvious signs of commitment are enthusiasm for the job and for

the people with whom one works. Individuals' commitment levels affect

their performance at work. However, findings reported by Leung

(1997) and Tett and Meyer (1993) on commitment outcomes,

particularly turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, and work performance,

are mixed, weak, or inconsistent.

Communication manifests itself in attitudes as accuracy and

openness of information exchange. Effective communication is the

heart of creating and maintaining an effective school (Rafferty, 2003).

Communication that occurs within schools is crucial in shaping

teachers' social reality. School excellence is Teacher-Student

Attachment and Teachers’ Attitudes directly related to what teachers

think and do. Teachers' attitudes and behaviour strongly rely on their

perceptions about their schools.

The fourth component of attitude is alienation, meaning the

extent to which staff members feel disappointed with their careers and

professional development (Rafferty, 2003). On the whole, the concept

of positive student-teacher interaction is multi-dimensional, as it

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involves organization, workload (difficulty), expected fairness of

grading, instructor knowledge, and perceiving learning.

Teaching has been identified as a stressful profession (Kyriacou

& Sutcliffe, 1978b; Milstein & Golaszewski, 1985). High stress among

teachers has many negative consequences, including higher than

average levels of anxiety and depression (Beer & Beer, 1992; Travers

& Cooper, 1994) and a desire to quit the profession and to use drugs

(Watts & Short, 1990). Indeed, according toBakewell (1988) and

Kyriacou and Sutcliffe (1978b), teachers' relationships with their

students affect their stress levels significantly. According to Mancini et

al.(1984), teachers with depersonalization (an 'alteration' in the

perception or experience of the self so that one feels 'detached' from

one's mental processes or body ) will behave immorally and fail to give

information to their students. These teachers tend to deny opinions

and ideas from students as well as fail to interact or communicate with

their students. Several studies show that teacher stress predicted

negative teacher and student relationships. Significant correlations

were found among teacher stress and negative relationships between

teacher and student (Yoon, 2002). Teacher stress arises from being

unable to discipline pupils in the way they would prefer (Lewis, 1999).

Referring to Day, Elliot and Kington’s (2005) study, teacher

commitment has been found to be a critical predictor of teachers’ work

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performance, absenteeism, retention, burnout and turnover. Day et al.

(2005) suggested that teachers remained committed to their beliefs

throughout their professional life. Although their levels of engagement

with particular practices were modified through various life events and

activities, their commitment to their ideological positions did not

diminish. However, some teachers' commitment might vary over time,

because different people have different levels, and some can plateau

earlier or later than others. Commitment was moderated through a

range of factors; some of which were sustaining and some diminishing.

Teachers were less likely to engage in particular activities or behave in

particular ways at one point in time, depending on various work and

life contextual factors such as school contexts, and relationships with

students and colleagues. These seemed to be the major work and life

factors that diminished commitment (Huberman, 1993a; 1993b).

The relationship between job satisfaction and stress coping skills

of primary school teachers has been studied extensively by Bindhu and

Kumar (2007). Bindhu and Kumar’s (2007) study shows a statistically

significant difference in job satisfaction between male and female

primary school teachers. However, in case of stress coping skills, they

found no statistically significant difference. Bindhu and Kumar’s (2007)

study also shows a significant and positive correlation between job

satisfaction and stress coping skills, which are self reliance,pro-active

attitude, adaptability and flexibility, and total stress coping skills. In

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brief, the ability to cope with stress can increase teachers' job

satisfaction.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction, in other beliefs, is measured on how the

employees like or unlike their job. Sector (1997) once stated that it is

strongly believed that job satisfaction is measured on simply how

contented an employee is to his or her job. Moreover, Locke (1976)

defined job satisfaction as "a pleasurable or positive emotional state

resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences", in which,

had been a widely used definition on job satisfaction. Boundless

Management (2014) mentioned five factors that affect and influence

job satisfaction:

1. Pay or total compensation

Amount or basic salary given affects the contentment of the employee

to his or her job because the pay might be too large or too small for

the employee.

2. The work itself

Job satisfaction is also influenced if the job itself is suitable to the

employee or not. It may be the skills of the employee do not match of

what work he or she has as of today.

3. Promotion Opportunities

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Employees tend to expect greater titles or positions if they work hard

and put a certain amount of effort on their work.

4. Relationship with supervisor

Communications with the boss also affect job satisfaction. Close

relationship with the higher rank can either heighten or reduce job

satisfaction.

Interaction and work relationship with coworkers

Barriers to promotion

According to Greyvnstein (1989:22), all the factors that hinder an

individual to have an achievement in a professional level are called

barriers to promotion. It can be classified into two types:

1) Intrinsic or personal barriers

These are the factors that are within women. According to Van der

Westhuizen intrinsic barriers have something to do with their value

system and attitude. These are so called female limitations that are

the traditional attitudes of societies about feminine characteristics.

2) Extrinsic barriers

These are the complex and diverse social factors that continue to

affect women’s possibility of entering school leadership. Burke and

Nelson (1988:7-8) state that extrinsic barriers to promotion includes

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the negative assumptions in executive ranks about women, their

abilities and their commitment, perceptions that women do not fit in

the corporate culture and lack of ore opportunities for female

employees who have leadership potential.

Methodology

This chapter deals with the discussion of the research design,

research subject, research instrument, data gathering procedure and

the statistical treatment of the data.

Research Design

This study will use a non-experimental design utilizing the

descriptive correlation technique of research which is designed to

collect data, ideas facts and information related to the study. It

investigates the relationship between three (3) variables specifically,

(1) barriers to promotion of women teachers, (2) the teachers job

satisfaction and (3) their attitude towards work. This descriptive

research study will use survey questionnaires as tools for gathering

information. This study is interested to know the factors the women

teachers mostly consider as barriers to their promotion, the

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relationship between the barriers of promotion and the teachers’ job

satisfaction as well as the relationship between the barriers to

promotion of women teachers and their attitude towards work among

the teachers of the three different departments of Digos City National

High school.

Research Subject

This descriptive study includes the three (3) different

departments of Digos City National High school namely (1)

Mathematics Department, (2) Science Department and (3) English

Department. In all three (3) departments 24 teachers will be chosen as

respondents. A total of seventy-two (72) female teachers will be the

respondents for this research study.

Research Instrument

A three-part questionnaire will be used for this study. The first part

questionnaire is for the barriers to promotion of women teachers

adapted from the questionnaire of the University of Pretoria etd

prepared by Chabalala, LW(2006), The second part questionnaire is for

the teacher’s job satisfaction adapted from the Early Professional

Project questionnaire of the University of Stirling and the third part

questionnaire is for the teachers’ attitude towards work.

Data Gathering Procedure

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In order to gather data necessary for the conduct of this study, the

researchers will do the following procedures:

1. The researchers will gather records of how many female teachers

are there in each of the three different departments in Digos City

National High School involved in the study.

2. The researchers will select a uniform number of teachers in each

of the departments to be the respondents of this study.

3. The researchers will search and adapt questionnaires for each

variable of the study.

4. The researchers will personally distribute the questionnaires to

the respondents as well as retrieve the questionnaires after the

respondents had answered them.

5. The researchers will gather relevant data and will ask a

statistician to analyze the data and the interpretation of the data

will be done by the researchers themselves.

Statistical treatment of data

Certain statistical treatments will be utilized for better comprehension,

analysis and interpretation of the data gathered.

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Questionnaire A

This section is about the five (5) fundamental concepts in

identifying barriers to promotion for women teachers, which are:

Leadership, Gender, Gender and Leadership, Barriers to promotion and

Feminism.

In the following statements, please answer by indicating if you

totally Agree, Agree to a certain extent, Disagree to a certain extent or

totally disagree

LeadershipTotally Agree Agre

eDisagre

e

Totally disagree

Men are better school managers.

Women do not possess the necessary attributes for school

leadership.Most male principals have been

misplaced at the expense of

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women teachers.Relatively, women teachers do

not apply for leadership positions in school.

Male principals as well as male educators are threatened by the inclusion of women leaders in the

school leadership structures.Even the SGB believes in male-

oriented school leadership.

GenderTotally agree Agre

eDisagre

e

Totally disagree

Determines the relative position of women in the school leadershipWomen are good at carrying out

decisionsWomen suffer guilt and shame

when they have to apply for leadership positions

The concerns of oppressed women is dominated by the voices of male

intellectuals at the helm of leadership, where women are

almost non-existent

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Gender And LeadershipTotally Agree Agre

eDisagre

e

Totally Disagre

eHousekeeping and child rearing are the only suitable careers for women

Women should change their feminine approach to life if they

want to be recommended for leadership positions in school.Women have internalized the

traditional gender stereotypes to such an extent they feel inferiorWomen are labeled by what they

do and not what they areAll men are equally oppressive

Barriers to promotion

Totally agree Agre

eDisagre

e

Totally Disagree

Gendering curricular in schools has significance in the under-

representation of women in the leadership schools

Society is reluctant to have women in the leadership positions

of schoolsPoor mentoring is one of the

causes of the under-representation of women in

leadership positions in schoolMost women teachers are not

aware of the legal rules applying to their professional field

Male principals will not retire unless an alternative replacement

is male

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FeminismTotally Agree

Agree

Disagree

Totally Disagree

The under-representation of women in the school leadership

should be left unchallenged because changing it can be costlyFeminism should be encouraged because it raises awareness of all

factors that alienate womenOnly aggressive women attain

leadership positionsSocieties treat women leaders as

exceptionsThe education system has been organized in a way that benefits

men

Bibliography

Greyvenstein, 1989-22

Mitchell & Lassen, 1987

North craft & Neale, 1996

Kreitner & Kinicki, 2007

Reinter & Kinaki, 2007

Elite, 1994

Nias, 1989

Kelchtermans, 2005

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