Job Satisfaction and Teacher Education: Correlational Study in Postgraduate Graduates in Education

Abstract

Teacher education is recognized as the process of improving teaching practices. During their postgraduate studies, aspiring teachers are encouraged to improve both their teaching practice and their working conditions. Therefore, an expectation for their Masters’ degrees is that upon graduation, they can achieve job satisfaction. This study had a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional and correlational non-experimental research design. Its objective was to analyze the level of job satisfaction of working teachers after graduating with a Master’s degree in Education, and with this, to correlate sociodemographic variables with the level of job satisfaction. As an information-collection technique, the Job Satisfaction Scale for Teachers (ESLA) was used, which has reliability for internal consistency of 0.88 in Cronbach’s alpha. The results show that teachers graduating with a Master’s degree in Education score significant levels of job satisfaction, ranging between high and moderate, confirming that, as in other studies, with greater possibilities of qualification and teacher preparation, job satisfaction is maintained or generated. The statistical hypothesis testing method of inferential statistics confirmed that moderate and high levels of job satisfaction can be maintained in working teachers after graduating from postgraduate training, without implying relationships with gender, the type of hiring, doctoral degrees, type of contracts or the type of educational institution where they work.