Luận văn thạc sĩ factors affecting teachers’ emotion in teaching a narrative inquiry at a high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU UYÊN

FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS’ EMOTION IN TEACHING:
A NARRATIVE INQUIRY AT A HIGH SCHOOL.
( Nghiên cứu về cảm xúc của giáo viên đối với hoạt động dạy học qua tự thuật
của giáo viên trung học phổ thông )

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

HANOI - 2020


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU UYÊN

FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS’ EMOTION IN TEACHING:
A NARRATIVE INQUIRY AT A HIGH SCHOOL.
( Nghiên cứu về cảm xúc của giáo viên đối với hoạt động dạy học qua tự
thuật của giáo viên trung học phổ thông )

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr Lê Văn Canh

HANOI – 2020


DECLARATION
I hereby certify the thesis entitled “ Factors affecting teachers‟ emotion in
teaching: A narrative inquiry at a high school” as my own work in the fulfilment
of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of
Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Hanoi, 2020

Nguyễn Thị Thu Uyên

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank all of those who helped me complete this study.
First, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my beloved
supervisor, Assoc. Dr Le Van Canh, for his enthusiastic and careful guidance as
well as his encouragements he gave me while I was doing this study. Second, I
would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to my respectful
lectures in Faculty of Post-Graduated Department at University of Languages
and International Studies for the devotion and their useful lectures.
Last but not least, I would also like to thank all of the participants in this
study, who took time from their busy schedules to take part in my research.

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ABSTRACT
The study aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of the causes that were
influential towards emotion of the teachers who were selected from different
high school. The study was adopted as a qualitative research method and the
narrative inquiry was used. The data of the study were collected with
participants‟ narratives. Content analysis method was used in analyzing the data.
In accordance with the research aims, this study identified 4 themes. As a result
of the coding of the data obtained at the end of the research, the following 4
themes. (1) Professional commitment, (2) Students, (3) Collegiality, (4)
Financial were determined as the four themes of the study. Through all these can
be illustrated the role of emotions on the teaching work. They are part of
working environment and definitely affect with various ways. Either positive
either negative its research help to elicit the keys for success and to avoid non
desired results on workplace.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ........................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale for the study ............................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................... 2
1.3. Research questions ..................................................................................... 2

1.4. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 2
1.5. Significances of the study .......................................................................... 3
1.6. Structure of the thesis ................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................... 4
2.1. Defining emotion........................................................................................ 4
2.2.Teachers‟ Performance................................................................................ 5
2.3. Teachers‟ emotion and its effect on teachers‟ performance ...................... 5
2.4. Previous studies on teachers' emotion ........................................................ 6
2.5. The previous studies on factors affecting teachers' work performance ... 9
2.5.1. Lack of interest in teaching profession ................................................... 9
2.5.2. Inadequate Salary and other Benefits.................................................... 10
2.5.3. Characteristics of the school work Environment .................................. 13
2.6. Narrative Research Tradition .................................................................. 15
2.7. Summary .................................................................................................. 18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ........................................................... 19
3. 1. Research Methodology............................................................................ 19
3.2. Qualitative Research Design .................................................................... 19
3.3. What is narrative inquiry? ........................................................................ 19
3. 4. The Reason and Context for Using Narratives........................................ 22
3.5. Researcher‟s Role .................................................................................... 23
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3.6. Area of study ............................................................................................ 24
3.7 . Sample Design......................................................................................... 24
3.7. 1. Participants ........................................................................................... 25
3.7. 2. Sample Size .......................................................................................... 26
3.8. Data Collection ......................................................................................... 26
3.9. Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 27
3.10. Coding of the data into themes............................................................... 28

3.11. Reliability and Validity Validation ........................................................ 29
3.12. Summary ................................................................................................ 30
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .............................. 32
4.1. Data analysis of the four themes .............................................................. 32
4.1.1. Theme 1: Professional commitment .................................................... 32
4.1.2. Theme 2: Students ................................................................................. 33
4.1.3. Theme 3: Collegiality .......................................................................... 34
4.1.4. Theme 4: Financial issues ................................................................... 35
4.2. Findings and discussion ........................................................................... 36
4.2.1 Professional commitment ....................................................................... 36
4.2.2 Students .................................................................................................. 37
4.2.3 Collegiality ............................................................................................. 37
4.2.4. Financial ................................................................................................ 38
4.3. Summary .................................................................................................. 38
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............ 40
5.1. Recapitulation.......................................................................................... 40
5.2. Concluding remarks. ................................................................................ 40
5.3. Limitation of the current research. ........................................................... 42
5.4. Recommendations .................................................................................... 42
5.4.1 Recommendation and policy implications ............................................. 42
5.4.2. Recommendations and suggestions for future research ........................ 43
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 44
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... I
v


APPENDIX A .................................................................................................... I
Email to Potential Participants ........................................................................... I
APPENDIX B .................................................................................................. II
Informed Consent to Participate in a Research Study ..................................... II

APPENDIX C .................................................................................................. V
Participants‟ narratives ..................................................................................... V
APPENDIX D ............................................................................................... XV
Thank You Email to Participants .................................................................. XV

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. Participant profiles (All names are pseudonyms) ......................... 26
Table 3. 2.Codes, Categories, and Themes ..................................................... 28

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This part introduces the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
methods and the scope of the study. It also concludes with a presentation of the
organization of the thesis.
1.1. Rationale for the study
Education is one of the most important elements that energize the development
of society. It is a base for socio-economic, cultural and political development of
a country. It enables individuals to acquire knowledge, skills, ability and
attitudes and make them full participate in the development process of a country.
To gain the development of the country, each nation has its own strategies but
none of them care for education. Education is considered as one of the most
important keys to the development. One of the integral elements contributing to
a good education is teacher. Teachers are dedicated professionals who have a
lasting impact on students. "Being a teacher means allowing a person to leverage
strengths and passion as a leader and organizer in the education field. As a

guider and role model, students will be inspired by teachers' commitment to
helping them develop their unique talents and intellect (Kelly S, 2018)".While
the majority highly consider knowledge, abilities and skills as the most essential
parts of successful lessons and promotion of teaching quality, teachers' emotions
themselves still play an important role.
The teachers, who play an important role in the productivity and quality
of the educational organizations, are humans rather than machines and also these
directly serve the business of the country and develop the behaviors of the social
life. According to the criteria of the staff, educational, scientific, cultural,
artistic, sportive activities and central examination system, the teachers who start
from teaching have the right to progress in national education career stages
(Boyacı, 2016). It has not been organized in any exam for career stages about 10
years. Therefore, the teachers are waiting for their career steps. On the other
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hand, „teachers‟ professional development‟ is accepted as the primary factor
affecting school development and students‟ success (Canales & Maldonado,
2018). Determining the factors affecting their emotion is thought to be an
important issue by the researchers. In Vietnam, according to the recent records,
the factors that effect, in particular, the emotions, which is still an practically
and theoretically unfamiliar aspect, are gaining popularity. Studies on emotions
of teachers nowadays still emphasized on reality but have not made any
breakthrough so they limit the result in synopsis. Especially, finding out the
factors affecting teachers' emotion by their narrative seem not to be
implemented. Therefore, it is essential to promote more and more the deeper
studies on this issue in order to enhance and develop the standard of education.
1.2. Aims of the study
The aim of this study is to investigate factors affecting high school
teachers' emotion through their own narratives. The findings of the study will

give suggestions for educators more information to improve the working
condition for teachers. Thus, it enhances English language teaching and learning
and teachers' challenges will be addressed.
1.3. Research questions
In order to achieve these aims, a question is:
What factors affect high school teachers' emotion in teaching?
1.4. Scope of the study
Teachers' emotion in the field of second language teaching is a wide topic.
However, this is just a minor thesis so the thesis topic is narrowed to facilitate
the research. Also, the researcher is concerned with factors effecting teachers'
emotion by analyzing their narratives. The participants of study include a small
number of teachers from a high school. Thus, the results of study might not be
generalized to all teachers
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1.5. Significances of the study
This research was designed as the narrative approach based on qualitative
research method. The narrative approach aims to have an in-depth and detail
view of what we have noticed as facts. Phenomenological study aims to
acknowledge perceptions, perspectives as well as understandings of people
related to a particular event by in-depth and unstructured interviews or narrative.
The sample size commonly ranges from 5 to 25 individuals (Leedy & Ormrod,
2001). The subject of current research is to determine the factors affecting the
emotion of the teachers working in a high school. In relation to this subject, the
study aims to acquire comprehensive, in-depth and systematic information on
experiences and perceptions of teachers on work-emotion.
1.6. Structure of the thesis
The thesis is composed of five chapters. These chapters are:
Chapter I: Introduction covers the rationale, the aims, the research questions,

the methods and the scope of the study and the organization of the thesis.
Chapter II: Literature review
- A review of the relevant literature, i.e., previous studies on teacher
emotion, for the construction of a theoretical framework of the study.
Chapter III: Methodology
- Presents the context, the rationale for the adoption of the methodology
used in this study, which is a narrative inquiry
Chapter IV: Data analysis and Findings
- Consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data
Chapter V: Conclusion
- Offers a summary of the findings, recommendations, limitations, and
future directions for further study.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews the theoretical relevant issues related emotions,
teachers' emotions, factors affecting emotions.....
2.1. Defining emotion
Emotions are biological states associated with the nervous system brought
on by neurophysiological changes variously associated with thoughts, feelings,
behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is
currently no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined
with mood, temperament, personality, disposition creativity, and motivation (
Damasio AR, May 1998).
To define emotion is obviously difficult and there has still been quite little
agreement across disciplines. The term "emotion" is used as ways reflecting
their different theoretical points of view including philosophical, physiological,
historical, organizational sociological, anthropological, psychological and

feminist perspectives (Oatley, 2000). Moreover, defining emotion has still
remained challenging, although there appears to be agreement on the function
and framework of emotion (Izard 2010). There are now some of agreement that
emotion is of multi-componential; in other words, "there is a number of more or
less collections of components unordered in each emotion"(Scherer, 2000).
Though different term is mentioned basing on theoretical perspective, almost of
the scientists express similar, or the same components. For illustration, two
educational psychologists define components of emotion as physiological
change subjective experience, appraisal, action tendencies and emotion
expressions (Sutton and Wheatley, 2003). While another psychologist, Izard
(2010), refers to similar components as neural systems, response systems,
antecedent mental appraisal, expressive behaviour, feelings or a feeling state and
cognitive interpretation. The two psychologists, Sutton and Wheatley (2003)
also accentuated the fact that the elements that influence each other are partly
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independent, moreover Izard (2010) argued that the component should be seen
as socially constructed instead of purely individual and psychological. To
understand deeply emotion the most important thing is to find out how the
„biological‟ and the „psychological‟ components of emotion interact with others
in term of the social domains (Corcoran & Tormey, 2012). A psychologist,
Zembylas (2004) determined emotion as evaluative, relational and political and
shaped by the power relations and politics within a school and broader society,
so therefore need to be seen through such a view.
2.2. Teachers’ Performance
Teacher performance plays an important role in the school performance. It
comprises what the employee does or does not do. Performance involves quality
of output, quantity of output, timeliness of the output, cooperation and the
presence at work (Gungur 2011). Employee performance can be defined as the

record of outcomes achieved for each job function during a specified period of
time (Macky and Johnson 2000). However, performance could be measured by
variety of parameters which show an employee‟s pattern of performance over
time. Performance in the organization context is usually defined as the extent to
which an organizational member contributes to achieving the goals of the
organization. It involves an organization to communicate its mission and
strategies to the employees, setting individual performance targets to meet the
employee as well as the organization mission. The continuous review of
performance management ensures organizational performance (Ying 2012).
2.3. Teachers’ emotion and its effect on teachers’ performance
Would a class be “happy” when its teacher is in bad mood? The
burdensome curriculum as well as examinations put pressure on bọth students
and teachers. Teachers themselves have to “fight” to convey to students to keep
pace with the progress but still remain the standard of lessons. This kind of
pressure invisibly makes them become stressful and worried, and there appears
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durably insecurity. While the majority highly considers knowledge, ability and
skills as the most essential parts of successful lessons and promotion of teaching
quality, teachers' emotions themselves still play an important role. When
mention the process of enhancing the standard of teaching of which the main
subject is the teachers, what people prefer to rate are experience, skills, and
knowledge. However, a critical factor which is often overlooks is the felling(s).
So, what is exactly the felling? Chubbuck & Zembylas (2008) supposed that
teachers' emotion does not only simply develop in his personal psychological
revolution but also relate to the reaction among the individuals and is influenced
by social environment. Schools and classrooms are settings where teachers have
to experience sophisticated emotions of a large number of subjects: students,
parents, colleagues and superiors. A large range of questions merge in their

mind: “whether my students comprehend the lessons or not?” “Do they do their
homework?” “Do they follow my guides?”... Still get round and round. Then,
the take up a habit of control their students in a strict, even harsh way. It seems
that teachers are in an "awkward" status to understand and manage their own
emotions in many different situations. If teachers are negative and annoyed,
would their student be comfortable and happy, or these bad feelings could
“spread” among their students. The prerequisite condition of a teacher is that to
know exactly his emotions, to figure out the role of emotions in teaching and
create friendly atmosphere in classroom. How to integrate the emotion factor
with experience and specialty in teaching process is also a question to answer
for any teacher. Since the late 20th century, reports and studies on emotions
have drawn more and more public attention from all over the world. Especially
in schools. Almost every writer and author often identifies the emotional
expressions as well as their reasons and skills to control them in general way.
2.4. Previous studies on teachers' emotion
Twenty years ago, researches on teacher emotions were limited. One
explanation for this lack of research on teacher emotions is the prejudice against
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emotion in Western culture (Zembylas, 2003), stemming from an understanding
that emotions are complex and difficult to understand. Also, emotions are
related to women and feminine philosophies as well as have therefore lack of
importance as research foci (Zembylas, 2003). Two spychologists, Sutton and
Wheatley (2003) also identified that the word "emotional" has had negative
relationship with words like irrational, also emotions have been viewed as
“destructive, primitive, and childish, rather than thoughtful, civilized, and adult”
(p 328). Teacher emotion is now viewed as an important field of research
because of a number of reasons. In the first place teacher emotional wellbeing
has become critical in the context of high rates of teacher attrition. Emmer

(1994) identified that "teachers experience negative emotions more often than
positive ones". When being asked to assess their own teaching outcomes,
teachers mentioned feelings of inadequacy and failure, along with anger towards
their student (Lortie, 1975). Poor emotion and stress management is known as to
rank as the main reasons why teachers quit the profession. "Darling-Hammond
(2001) and Woolfolk Hoy (2013) argued that teachers are “neither warned about
nor prepared” (p. 264) for the emotional demands of their chosen career,
sometimes resulting in decisions to leave the profession (Richardson, Watt &
Devos, 2013)". In an effort to better understand teacher's attrition, researchers
have explored teacher burnout (Høigaard, Giske, & Sundsli, 2011; Akın, Aydın,
Erdoğan & Demirkasımoğlu, 2013; O'Brien, Goddard & Keeffe, 2008), and
teacher resilience (Day & Gu, 2009; Hong, 2012), teacher wellbeing (Martin,
Parker, Colmar & Liem, 2012). The teacher resilience literature suggested that
emotions play an important role in a teacher‟s capacity to thrive, not just survive
in their professional life (Mansfield, Beltman, Price & McConney, 2012). In
addition, teachers‟ work has become increasingly driven by accountability and
highs take testing. Policy debates have even included discussion about
connecting teacher pay with some measure of „merit‟. This focus has impacted
in various ways on the classroom emotional climate, through influencing the
nature of student/teacher interactions and behaviours (Schreder, 2006). Although
7


evidence suggests an increased emphasis on high stakes testing and
accountability is changing the nature of classroom transactions (Shutz, Rodgers
& Simcic, 2010), and is associated with increased teacher attrition (Behrent,
2009) and teacher stress (Valli & Beuse, 2007), pressure and anxiety
(Thompson, 2014), further research is needed to fully understand the emotional
impact of such a focus. Teacher emotions have also been shown to be
inextricably linked to student emotions (Meyer & Turner, 2006). Researchers

determined that teacher and student enjoyment within classrooms are positively
associated (Frenzel, Goetz, Ludtke, Pekrun & Sutton, 2009) and that student and
teacher relationships act as an important “emotional filter” (Hargreaves, 1998).
Newberry (2010) stated that teachers need to be given instruction or support for
the development of personal relationships with students, as this often involves
considerable emotional work. Classrooms that are characterised by positive
emotion in regards to teaching and learning are likely to provide the best
conditions for student development and achievement (Frenzel et al, 2009; Yan,
Evans & Harvey, 2011). As noted above, learning is just as much an emotional
process as a cognitive one. Emotions serve as a powerful vehicle for enhancing
or inhibiting learning (Greenleaf, 2002). Linnenbrink and Pintrich (2002)
acknowledged, for example, that negative teacher emotions contribute to
negative student emotions and lessen the probability students will use cognitive
strategies for deeper, more elaborate processing of information. Furthermore, it
has been argued that emotions shape cognition (Mesquita, Frijda & Scherer,
1997) and therefore may have an important influence on motivation (Pekrun,
Goetz, Titz & Perry, 2002), efficacy beliefs and goals (Kaplan, Gheen &
Midgley, 2002). Indeed, not only do emotions influence academic performance
via their effect on cognitive resources, learning behaviours and motivation, but
the reverse is also true (Frenzel & Stephens, 2013). These connections between
emotions and learning, together with the obvious inter-relationship between
student and teacher emotions, further illustrate the need to study teacher
emotion. Historically, emotions and emotional experiences have been
8


conceptually elusive and what is now required is the development of a
conceptual model of teacher emotion. This view is shared with authors such as
Meyer and Turner (2006), who advocated the need for a conceptual framework
and a common vocabulary to underpin teacher emotion research. Similarly,

Hargreaves (2005) stated that in the context of teachers‟ work, some clarity of
emotion terms is required in order to discuss and analyses their emotional
experiences. Linnenbrink-Garcia and Pekrun (2011) also argued the necessity
for conceptual clarity so that emotion research encompasses the complexities of
emotion and facilitates productive discussions on teacher emotion. Furthermore,
another research reported that the pattern of emotion includes 5 factors:
happiness, love, sadness, anger, and scare. Love means the contentment of
teacher‟s results from the appreciation from society towards their passion for the
career, the stability of work and progression of their students. Sadness means the
status of hopelessness of being underestimated by their superiors or unfriendly
and uncooperative attitude inside the class. Anger mentions the irritation caused
by stress in school as well as the weakness of students. Scare relates to problems
such as students troubles or competitiveness among co-workers and the overexpectation from the authorities and parents, or even the imbalance amid their
current life and job (J. Chen 2016)
2.5. The previous studies on factors affecting teachers' work performance
2.5.1. Lack of interest in teaching profession
According to the teacher retention model of Gardy and Figueriaas cited in
Manna and Tesfaye (2002), there are four stage processes that will help teachers
to choose to stay or leave their profession. Of which selection is the stage, in
which teacher first show their interest towards the profession. It is widely argued
that the status of teachers in most countries, both developed and developing, has
declined substantially during recent decades (Bennel, 2004). However in
Tesfaye and Demewoz (2004) in their study explained that inclination towards
the teaching profession took a rain check over the last forty years mostly due to
9


the status attached to theprofession. According to (Esteve), as cited in Getachew,
1999, teaching is profession that people join when they are not capable of
finding an alternative job which pays more. In this regard Motuma (2006) and

Mulugeta (2010) also confirmed that most teachers enter in to the profession
because it is easier to get than other jobs or to make money (their earning) out of
it till they get another job among other reasons. Commitment refers to the
attachment and loyalty. As defined by (porter et al., 1974 cited in Armstrong,
1995, commitment is a relative strength of the individual‟s identification with,
and involvement in, a particular organization. Moreover, a review by Armstrong
(1995) mainly North American literature, led him to the conclusion that: “high
organizational commitment is associated with higher motivation and good
performance”. One of the causes of organizational commitment is job
satisfaction. People who are satisfied with their job are more committed to their
organization than those who are less satisfied (Mueller,Boyer, Price, & Iverson,
cited in Taye, 2011.Shukla (2009) demonstrated a high positive relation between
professional commitment and job satisfaction. Sylvester (2010) held that the
factors like location of institute, educational qualification and years of teaching
experience of teacher educators have impact on their attitude towards teaching
profession as well as level of job satisfaction. Attitude measurement has very
wide currency, particularly in social psychology the new curriculum emphasizes
that a curriculum should be based on the students' learning interests, life
experience and cognitive levels, and that it can promote more educational
processes of participation, communication and, enable specific learning targets
to be followed.
2.5.2. Inadequate Salary and other Benefits
Teacher salary scale has an intimate connection with teacher retention
patterns. When salary levels drops in relation to the level which pertain for
similar qualified personnel, this gives rise to teacher dissatisfaction and less
performance which, if unresolved can cause long duration difficulties and lack
10


of motivation (Coolahan, 2003). Coolahan argued that, from a variety of

perspectives the establishment of appropriate salary provision for teacher will
have short-term and long-term effects on teachers‟ retention pattern. Problems in
work places occur due to wrong perception of employees or their lack of
understanding about how organization link performance and pay system.
Armstrong (1995) stated that problems arise in work place due to inequitable or
unfair pay systems. In this regard, Vroom‟s expectancy theory suggests that a
pay-performance link is essential for motivating performance. According to
Fisher et al. as cited in Befikadu(2001), the expectancy model has three major
components, each of which based on a series of fairly straight forward
observations. Expectancy: the individual‟s perceptions of the probability that
effort will lead to task accomplishment or performance, Instrumentality:
perceptions of the probability that performance will result in receiving rewards
(such as pay or recognition), Valence: the subjective value or desirability that
the individual places on the attainment of a certain reward. As per Fisher et al.
(2006) explanation of the theory, “high performers will tend to gain a large share
of compensation resources and thus be motivated to stay with the organization
with better performance.
Below-average performers will become discouraged and will tend to
leave the organization. “They continued by stating that, however, reward system
that are not linked to performance tend to have the opposite effect and thus
result in the worst of both possibilities. Well paid poor performers may stay with
the organization: they are well rewarded and will not be sought by other
organizations. By contrast, top performers feel under-rewarded and will be
sought by other organizations that appropriately value their contributions.
There is considerable evidence that wages are almost equally important to
teachers in their decisions to leave their jobs as they are to workers in other
occupations. There is also an indication that teachers tend to give up their work
or weak performance if their salaries are low relative to alternative wage
11

opportunities. Especially teachers at the start of their career are highly
influenced by wage discrepancies. However, it does not imply that experienced
teachers are not affected, because higher salaries also appear to attract betterprepared

and

higher-quality teachers

(NCTAF,as

cited

in

Getachew

1999).Inadequate salary has been mentioned as the main cause of teachers‟ lack
of motivation indifferent studies (Getachew, 1999; Manna and Tesfaye, 2000,
Darge, Tesfaye and Demewoz,2004 and Motuma, 2006). In addition to being the
main cause of turnover, low pay is also put asone of the highest ranking reason
for their departure (Motuma, 2006:97). Despite the revision of teacher‟s salary
and career structure in 2007, inadequate salary has remained to be the major
problem in Ethiopia (VSO, 2007). Similarly, (Bobbitt et al., as cited in Burns,
2001) stated that teachers leave for higher paying jobs in other professions.
Although teacher salary have improved in recent years, they remain low
compared to those of other similarly educated workers (Ingersoll, 2001).
Overall, teachers in the United States earn much less than other workers with the
same amount of education and experience. Same is true in Ethiopia; teachers are
paid less than others in non-teaching profession with the same experience and

qualification. In addition, Ayalew(1991), (cited in Darge, 2002), identified that
low and inequitable salary and inequitable chance of career advancement as
critical matters in teachers‟ job dissatisfaction. In addition to salary, fringe
benefits like housing, free health care service and opportunities for further
training or education plays major role in teachers‟ retention as it creates
belongingness and commitment in the minds of teachers (Darge, 2002). On the
contrary, there is evidence that teachers‟ satisfaction was poorly related to salary
and other benefits (Nces, 1997, cited in Motuma, 2006). Money does not
augment the intrinsic nature of work. Indeed, in the most extreme cases it will
not affect the employee‟s motivation at all (as with voluntary work, where the
driving forces it related with commitment or Vocation).

12


According to Armstrong (1995), lack of commitment and dissatisfaction,
which is the main road to poor performance, can arise from very lack of clarity
about performance, lack of group cohesion and dissatisfaction and conflict with
managers and supervision. It is stated by Greer and Lortie cited in Aleazar
(2007) that teaching is career less and dead end job in USA as compared to other
careers. The number of positions in the upper ladder as compared to the existing
teachers are limited, consequently the difficulty for the advancement leave
teachers no choice but to abandon their profession in search of advancement.
Armstrong (1995) argues that dissatisfaction with career prospects is a
major cause of weak performance. To certain extent, this has to be accepted.
More and more people recognize that to develop their careers they need to move
on and there is little that employers can do about it. Moreover, promotion
criteria are also still based on qualification and years of service alone. In
Ethiopia also teaching was career less job with only in the last few decades
(Aklilu, 1967).Motuma (2006) identified that inadequate salary and lack of

motivation including low base salaries, limited non -financial benefits,
inconsistent implementation of career structure, lack of faire payment for work
done to extra time and lack of compensation such as; bonus, fringe benefits,
incentives and rewards were the major causes of teacher‟s dissatisfaction in
government secondary schools of Oromia regional state.
2.5.3. Characteristics of the school work Environment
School working conditions contribute to teacher commitment levels and
perseverance in a challenging placement (baker, 1988: Dove, 1982; Hurst and
Rust, 1990, Tatto, 1997:148, as citedin Motuma, 2006:32). In both less and more
industrialized countries, poor levels of organizational support have been found
to be a power full reason for qualified individuals not taking a position or
leaving it permanently. Teachers with inadequate resources and professional
isolation during their first years of teaching are particularly vulnerable (Baker,
1988 MooreJohnson, cited in Tattoo, 1997, in Motuma, 2006). According to
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(Dunham,Kyiriacou andSutcliffe, 1979 cited in Getachew, 1999), poor working
conditions include problems such as inadequate equipment, poorly maintained
buildings, lack of space, poor quality furniture, lack of suitable premises and
poor staff room facilities. In some countries, working conditions such as classsize, insufficient or defective amenities and equipment, inappropriateness of
teaching assignments and volume of non-teaching assignments are some of the
worst problems be setting teachers today (ILO, 1991). With regards to working
environment, Bennel (2004) stated that teachers as compared to other
professions do not have the chance to enjoy the same work environment.
Muluken et al. as cited in Arega (2007) and also recommended that upgrading
the work environment and working conditions for teachers is a favorable act
towards increasing teacher motivation, making the profession more attractive,
enhancing retention of teachers, and improving the quality of teaching and
learning. Although it may always require a substantial amount of money,

changes in this area may be cheaper and more effective than an overall increase
in teachers‟ salaries. They further stated that increasing teacher salaries may
seem apparent in reacting to attrition problems. However, Macdonald, as cited in
(Muluken et al., 2007) stated that improved working condition and environment
play their own

role by improving school buildings and

teachers‟

accommodation, increasing teacher responsibility for educational decisions,
reducing class sizes increasing parental community support, promoting collegial
relationships among teachers and administrators, providing teacher support and
recognition, and providing teacher counseling and medical care. Girmay (2011)
is pointed out those teachers who were stressed due to the various aspects of the
school environment reported less satisfaction and commitment in their job.
There appears little doubt that one of major adverse influences on job
satisfaction, work performance and productivity, and absenteeism and poor
performance is the incidence of stress at work (Mullins, as cited in Girmay,
2011). Kyriacouas cited in (Getachew, 1999) also underlined that in every day
work execution, teachers face a variety of difficult situations like tight deadlines
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given to a specific task that may be source of stress. Getachew (1999) also stated
that time pressure and poor working condition will create stress on teachers.
Another environmental
factor that causes teacher dissatisfaction is socio-economic status. With regard
to the socioeconomic status, the lower the socio-economic class of the teacher‟s
family, the more likely the person is to remain in teaching; the higher the socioeconomic status, the more likely the person is to leave teaching (Boland and

Selby, cited in chapman, 1994). In connection with this Tesfaye and Demwoze
(2004) affirmed that “the teaching profession is accorded with low
socioeconomic status in Ethiopia promoting negative attitudes towards the
profession which in turn result in little or no respect to those in the profession by
the community (parents, student, concerned government parties…)”. In this
respect Getachew (1999) recalled the few years earlier teaching was a respectful
occupation both socially and economically. However, these days, people started
to attach status with money earned rather than knowledge and sacrifices which
resulted in the low status rendered to teaching profession in the recent decades.
2.6. Narrative Research Tradition
A narrative study is a study of “the ways humans experience the world”
(Clandinin & Connelly, 1990, p. 2). It gives researchers insights into the
phenomenon (Creswell, 2012). Creswell (2012) noted, “For educators looking
for personal experiences in actual school settings, narrative research offers
practical, specific insights” (p. 502). The focus of narrative research can be on
the experiences of one or more individuals.
In an educational research effort, a narrative study is used to explore the
experiences of an individual; the narrative design was most suitable for this
study because it allowed the researcher to explore the teachers‟ emotion and the
factors affect their emotion in teaching.

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Narrative research comprises many procedures; including gathering data
through the collection of individuals‟ stories, reporting their experiences, and
chronologically ordering the meaning of those experiences (Creswell, 2013).
There is a wide variety of narrative approaches. The well-known approaches are
briefly described below.
a) A biographical approach is a narrative study in which the researcher writes

and records individuals‟ life experiences.
b) An auto ethnography approach is one in which the subject of the study writes
or records her own experiences.
c) A life history approach explores an individual‟s entire life in multiple
episodes. d) An oral history approach gathers personal reflections of events from
one or several individuals.
Although there are many narrative approaches, their different elements can
be combined (Creswell, 2013), and the combination can cover the entire lives of
individuals or specific life events (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998).
This study uses an oral history approach to gather personal reflections of events,
in this case, leadership development experiences.
The model developed by Lieblich et al. (1998) is used in data analysis. The
model suggests four types of narrative analysis.
1) Holistic-Content focuses on the content derived from the entire narrative.
2) Categorical-Content focuses on specific content themes within the narrative.
3) Holistic-Form focuses on plots or the structural components of the entire
narrative.
4) Categorical-Form focuses on specific forms of linguistics, such as metaphors
used in discrete sections of the narrative. This study employs CategoricalContent to focus on specific content themes within the narrative.

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