Work environment and the teacher: A qualitative case study of public secondary schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study examined the nexus between the public secondary school teacher and his/her work environment. To capture the nature and substance of this nexus, the study was mainly directed towards answering the following two research questions: Which attributes of work environment matter most to the public secondary school teacher? And why do they matter? The study was conducted on teachers in public secondary schools of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It adopted a qualitative case study design where data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then analyzed using a thematic analysis technique. The results show that basic school facilities, teacher-principal and teacher-student in-school inter-personal relations, financial and non-financial rewards, and the praxis of politics in a school setting are the attributes of the work environment that matter most to the study participants. Results also show that these attributes of work environment appeared as attributes of work environment with utmost importance to the teacher for they happened to be the basis of the teacher’s work motivation, job satisfaction, and work engagement. Findings further showed that the attributes of the work environment and the emergent causal consequences have both direct and indirect relationships. This study is expected to have empirical, methodological, and theoretical implications.