Professional satisfaction of teachers in pre-retirement

Abstract

Teaching is one of the professions that has undergone changes in both, its practice and career development. With the various modifications that have been made, teachers are faced with a panoply of factors that influence their professional performance and their professional satisfaction. From a sample of 114 teachers of elementary and secondary school in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (RAA), of which 73 are female (64%) and 41 male (46%), aged between 50 and 65, the aim was to analyse teachers' levels of job satisfaction, whether job satisfaction varies with preparation for retirement and sociodemographic variables. For data collection, three questionnaires were used to study participants' socio-demographic variables, their job satisfaction and their preparation for retirement. The results indicate that most of the primary and secondary school teachers do not prepare their retirement, that RAA primary and secondary schools do not develop retirement preparation programs, that teachers are relatively satisfied with their profession and that job satisfaction varies with age in a directly proportional relationship. The study highlights the need for organized intervention in the context of preparation for retirement among primary and secondary school teachers in the Region, although teachers are relatively satisfied with their work. Further studies are suggested to check whether the fact that teachers are relatively satisfied with the profession influences the lack of preparation for retirement.