A Critical Review of Klassen, R.
M., Foster, R. Y., Rajani, S., & Bowman, C. (2009). Teaching in the Yukon:
Exploring teachers’ efficacy beliefs, stress, and job satisfaction in a remote
setting. International Journal of
Educational Research, 48, pp. 381-
394.
Article Summary
This article with a title
‘Teaching in the Yukon: Exploring teachers’ efficacy beliefs, stress, and job
satisfaction in a remote setting’ is written by four researchers from
University of Alberta, Canada. The researchers present a mixed methods
examination of teachers’ job beliefs in the Yukon Territory in northern Canada.
In this article, the researchers assert teachers’ motivation beliefs has
emerged as a topic of interest in recent years, however not much study is
conducted on how motivation beliefs like self- and collective efficacy, job
stress, and job satisfaction are influenced by social, cultural, and
geographical factors. In fact, most studies are reported to rely solely on de-
contextualized self- report questionnaires that certainly disregard the
complexities of teaching in a particular situation. This sets the contexts for
the specific research problem and calls for the researchers to conduct the
study. By using a mixed methods examination, the researchers conducted two
studies. The first study is purposely conducted to examine job beliefs (self –
and collective efficacy, job stress, and job satisfaction) for 221 teachers
from the Yukon and western Canada and to compare levels and patterns of these
variables with a comparison group of western Canada teachers. Whereas, the
second study aimed to examine how geographical, community, and cultural factors
were related to Yukon teacher’s job beliefs. The first study revealed that
teachers’ self- and collective efficacy beliefs were significantly different
between the two groups: the Yukon teachers and western Canadian teachers. The results
were proven from analysis by MANOVA. However, using ANOVA analysis, the results
revealed that job- related factors: job stress and job satisfaction were not
significantly different between the two settings. On the other hands, the
second study revealed the three themes: (a)cultural transitions lead to stress,
(b) connecting with the community brings satisfaction, and (c) geography
influences stress/ satisfaction, which are related to geographical, cultural,
and community influences on job stress and job satisfaction, highlight
important points and provide deeper analysis of the quantitative findings in
the first study. However, the results in Study 2 provided less accuracy as not
all teachers espoused each facet of the three themes. Therefore, it is hard to
generalize the findings as the codes are reported based on the relevance of
teachers’ work in general and not specifically related to teaching in the Yukon
context. As mentioned in both studies, the researchers employed a mixed methods
examination to examine teachers’ job beliefs in the Yukon. The research design
strikes a chord for me and I believe the research findings provide more
reliable and accurate findings than found in the previous research. Besides
that, the analysis of data in current study helps me to understand deeply the
similarities and differences of the research findings from the two different
approaches of data collection. My overall impression is that, since this study
took place in two different settings but the settings relied solely in only one
of the Canada’s three territories and one urban Canadian setting, it is recommended
that more diverse remote areas and studies on different geographical, cultural
and community should be developed across diverse populations. Perhaps, the
study would be good if the researchers consider teachers’ performance to be
investigated in the study. An implementation of further research can perform
detailed examination and analysis on teachers’ performance in that might
influence lower levels of student performance in the Yukon as suggested to
teachers’ motivation beliefs in both settings.
Research Topic
As the title of the article
suggests, teachers’ efficacy beliefs, job stress, and job satisfaction were
influenced by cultural and community factors of the Yukon settings on teachers’
working lives. This is illustrated in the researchers’ transcription of
individual interviews with 20 teachers to ask them about their living and
working experiences in the Yukon. More specifically, the researchers noted that
challenges to teachers include inconvenience of travel and access to some urban
amenities, lack of professional development opportunities, lack of specialized
support services, cultural challenges, and in fact, working with the major
different community resulted to different values and beliefs. I strongly agree
with the researchers as teaching in remote settings needs the ability of the
teachers to adjust themselves in varied situations and conditions. In the
previous research, Jarzabkowski (2003) contended that teachers in remote
settings do not have the same opportunities for professional development that
can be readily provided to their city colleagues. They rely on rare visits from
education consultants, no Internet services, and far away from the collegial
networks among the teachers in other ways as well. I would find that this
article is useful as it is believable that professional, cultural, and geographical
isolation seem to give the greatest impact on teachers’ motivation beliefs and
the stress and satisfaction while teaching.
Research Problem
In this article, the researchers
do not specify the research hypothesis, but they do address questions about
teachers’ motivation beliefs in the Yukon to serve as the focus of the
researchers’ investigation. Throughout the study, the researchers attempt to
answer such questions: (a) What is the relationship between teachers’ efficacy
beliefs, job stress, and job satisfaction for teachers in the Yukon? (b) Are the levels and patterns of relationships different for
teachers in remote and urban settings?
(c)
What do teachers in the Yukon say about factors that influence their job stress
and job satisfaction? In my view, the research questions is clearly stated and
dictated to the research types of approach whether quantitative or qualitative
or even mixed methods research to be used to conduct the study. For example,
the third research question requires teachers’ perception, thus, the research
is conducted by using a qualitative research method to analyze the interpreting
data.
Review of the Literature
In this article, the researchers
have relied on several previous researches. They begin with a brief review of
literature from Evan (1998) that supports the ideas that teachers’ motivation
is the beliefs that determine the extent to which teachers feel engaged and
energized in their teaching works. Using Henson (2002) and Elliott (2004)
views, a mixed method approach is required to understand the complexities of
teaching in exploring teachers’ efficacy beliefs, stress and job satisfaction
in both applied settings. I suppose the study focused on exploring the dynamics
of interactions with the emphasis on answering the research questions that
involves multiple teachers’ perspectives. The perceptions and values of all the
teachers (as participants) in particular situation are needed in order to
explore various possible interpretations. Therefore, it is agreed for the
current article to use a mixed method approach. Next, the researchers review
literature that supports the challenges faced by teachers in remote settings. However,
they suggest little explanation on how different values and beliefs can reflect
the curriculum, teachers, and educational leaders as mentioned by Goddard &
Foster (2002); Mills & Gale (2003). In addition, the researchers clearly
point out the population of the Yukon residents. Besides, they suggest that
school comparisons show Yukon schools have a lower academic performance than other
school in those provinces in the south, in general. Central to the analysis of
the data is to explore teachers’ efficacy beliefs, stress, and job satisfaction
in a remote setting. Perhaps, I believe that the issue of lower academic
performance of the students is somewhat related to the stress encountered by
teachers in a remote setting. The researchers also review literature explaining
what is meant by teachers’ self- and collective efficacy and how such teachers’
motivation beliefs can give impact to teaching difficulties with students’
behavior at the classroom and school levels, and students’ outcome such as students’
achievement. Furthermore, they also review literature on job- related factors:
teachers’ stress and job satisfaction. The research supported Yoon (2002); Abel
& Sewell (1999) statements that teachers’ stress in inversely related to
teacher self- efficacy, and positively related to poor teacher- pupil rapport,
and low levels of teacher effectiveness. Additionally, it is noted that
workload and student misbehavior are the major contributors to teachers’
stress. The research corresponded to Bandura (1997) in which teachers with high
levels of self- efficacy cope better with challenging teaching conditions and
it is no doubt that teachers in schools where there is good communication among
staff and a strong sense of collegiality report lower levels of stress, and
higher levels of commitment and job satisfaction. The researchers concluded the
study by providing the research questions and an important research design in
which they collect the data through quantitative and qualitative data
collection over multiple visits to the Yukon over a 2- year period.
Methods
In this article, the researchers
used a mixed methods design. The study began with quantitative data collection
and analysis using a well- established measure. The instrument utilized was
questionnaires to examine job beliefs for 221 teachers from the Yukon and the
western Canada. The scale was used to measure teachers’ self- and collective
efficacy, overall job stress, sources of job stress, and job satisfaction. The
scale used 9- point measure, with descriptors at 1- disagree strongly, 3-
disagree, 5- neutral, 7- agree and 9- agree strongly. A MANOVA was used to
analyze the data between the two groups. I believe a MANOVA would be most
applicable for normally distributed quantitative data and it is appropriate for
the sample group as well. The analysis showed there was a significant
difference between the two groups. When the study further examining the job
stress, sources of stress and job satisfaction, an ANOVA was used to analyze
the data. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between
the two groups. In order to reduce threats, bias and maintain validity, the
researchers agreed not to ask participants to identify their school or
community on surveys, but they estimated the total participants based on conference
attendance data.
In Study 2, the researchers
stated that they used a qualitative research approach. The researchers
conducted interviews to examine how geographical, community, and cultural
factors were related to Yukon teachers’ job beliefs. The participants were
selected from a larger amount of volunteers who had indicated their interest
during the multiple visits by the researchers to various schools and
communities. The participants are described in terms of their teaching level,
sex, and geographical location. The participants are also described to
represent a range of teaching experience, ranging from two teachers in their
first year of teaching through to two teachers in the final year of teaching.
The procedures are described in sufficient details with the interviews were
guided with semi- structured interview protocol. The interview protocol is
described clearly with examples. However, the protocol categories were not
static as other prompt questions have been asked during interaction with
participants. The data were collected using audio- recording and data
collection method was described in considerable detail as one would expect with
a qualitative study. The study was seemingly reliable as over the 2 years
period of data collection, the researchers kept running field notes to keep
track of the occurrences of themes and issues that arouse through observations
in schools as well as in informal conversations with the participants. Themes
from the field notes, documents, and interviews were coded and examined for
other themes. These themes are also been described by the researchers in
considerable details. Reliability and validity of the content analysis were
addressed by the researchers. They contends on how they ensured reliability and
validity of data obtained through the multiple visits to the territory. In
addition, the researchers are able to examine the validity of their data
analysis by reviewing and assessing emerging themes from previous interviews
with subsequent interviewees. As mentioned, the content analysis was used to do
the analysis of the written contents of the interview. Analysis of the data
began with developing a set of “start codes”. Prior to the start codes, the
researchers developed a set of further codes that emerged during multiple
readings and repeated coding process of the interview data. The results
suggested the reliability was increased through a second round of coding of the
first interview. The researchers later presented the analysis in a table form and
network mapping. Though there is shortage in this study, the researchers have
been able to support the research objectives with the findings and
simultaneously answered the research questions.
Conclusion
The researchers began by
relating their findings back to the purpose of the study: to examine self- and
collective efficacy, job stress, and job satisfaction for teachers in the
Yukon, and compared levels and patterns of these variables with a comparison
group of teachers from several schools in the Yukon and western Canada; and to
examine how geographical and social factors influence work- related factors,
especially job stress and job satisfaction, for teachers in a remote setting.
It is noted that the results in study 1 suggested a similarity in the
motivation beliefs, overall job stress, sources of stress, and job satisfaction
of teachers in the Yukon and teachers in western Canada. While in study 2, the
results showed the importance of geographical, cultural, and community in
influencing teachers’ stress and satisfaction. It is certain that most teachers
in both settings agreed that teaching was highly stressful, but also
satisfying. Finally, the researchers make
suggestion for further research to provide more objective measures,
justifications, examples, and evidences to assess key variables either higher
stress or higher job satisfaction since the current study overlooks this matter. Towards the end, the researchers addressed
some implications of the study. All in all, I believe that the data do support
the conclusions made by the researchers.
Critical Reflections
While the researchers mentioned
that the study is limited in its generalizability, they stratified the sample
to a variety of settings in the territory, and the participation rate was high.
I believe that this could present a threat to the internal validity of the
study in which participants might not have been entirely focused on completing
the survey. There are a number of other factors that could affect the internal
validity of the study, yet were not addressed by the researchers.
In addition, as part of the
ethics in conducting questionnaires, participants deserve to be protected from
revealing the identity of their schools. The researchers do a good job of
asking participants not to identify their school or community on survey. However,
the school backgrounds and environments would greatly effect the responses of
the participants, thus, precluded more sophisticated multi- level analysis of
the data. And yet, this was not considered in the study.
Furthermore, the researchers
relied solely on qualitative investigation on teachers in the Yukon and
disregarded urban western Canadian teachers’ perceptions of community factors
that influence job beliefs. Therefore, the study is restricted in examining any
significant difference of teachers’ perceptions in both settings. Although most
teachers in both settings agreed that teaching was highly stressful, the
findings on teachers’ perceptions might reveal the distinction between the
Yukon and urban western Canada settings.
Moreover, as the qualitative
research methodology itself does not restrict the researchers to maintain the
internal validity, in study 2, the research presented only 17 out of 24 codes
are reported with seven “foundation codes” not specifically related to teaching
in the Yukon context but what are relevant to teachers’ work in general. It
would have been possible to actually go to single context; the Yukon context,
to gain a reliable data collection.
While the study has merit, it
has to be admitted that the current study is still far from being conclusive. The
power of the study needs to be increased by obtaining more adequate and
appropriate sampling selection. Besides, the numerous potential threats to
internal validity need to be addressed and minimized where possible. Further
studies must be undertaken, better measures must be developed, and larger
samples must be used to improve the effectiveness of the study.
References:
Jarzabkowski, L.
(2003). Teacher collegiality in a remote Australian school. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 18,
139- 144.
Klassen, R. M.,
Foster, R. Y., Rajani, S., & Bowman, C. (2009). Teaching in the Yukon:
Exploring teachers’ efficacy beliefs, stress, and job satisfaction in a remote
setting. International Journal of
Educational Research, 48, 381- 394.
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