Secondary Teacher Workload and Job Satisfaction

This article analyses the views of secondary school teachers involved in the Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project—a project designed to address issues of teacher workload and job satisfaction. The initiative was launched in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to enable 32 pilot schools to explore ways in which they might restructure their working practices and reduce teacher workload. Funding was provided for schools to benefit from consultancy support, the training of headteachers, the employment of additional teaching assistants, the provision of ICT hardware and software, the training of bursars/school managers and for capital build projects. Here we concentrate on the evaluation of the Pathfinder Project with particular reference to possible changes in workload and job satisfaction of secondary teachers in the 12 secondary schools involved in the project. The reported weekly and holiday hours worked by secondary teachers are analysed across the duration of the project, as are patterns of evening and weekend work. Teachers’ views on job satisfaction are also analysed in conjunction with their perspectives on workload, culminating in a discussion of their solutions to the problems of excessive workload. The relationship between teacher workload, job satisfaction and work-life balance is explored within the context of the future modernization of the entire school workforce.