Author: staff

Institute of Education
Research Digest

The Influence of New School Buildings upon the Motivation,
Morale and Job Satisfaction of Teaching Professionals
Dr Colin Howard : Senior Lecturer, University of Worcester

Introduction, background and aims of the research
The focus for the research is rooted in a recent Labour’s Government (1997-2010) policy of creating new school buildings which involved injecting large amounts of government capital into flagship initiatives such as ‘Schools for the Future’ (DFES, 2002) and ‘Building Schools for the Future’, (BSF) (DFES, 2003). This resulted in the establishment of 1,100 new school buildings over a 10 year period (DCSF, 2008) and led to the injection of £55 billion worth of capital investment. However, as a direct result of the global recession in 2008 and the need for the newly elected coalition government of both the Liberals and Conservatives under the leadership of David Cameron to rein in spending, that Labour’s flagship policies of creating new schools were cancelled in 2010. This resigned the 20-year school building programme to history and the resultant scrapping 715 projects and the saving of £169 million worth of capital monies (Guardian, 2010).
Though forming part of a post-graduate thesis, this research was conceived to investigate the outcomes of such a wide ranging policy upon teaching professionals who now find themselves working in such new school buildings. This research was also designed to fill what is a paucity of research available relating to the influence of these new schools upon the motivation, morale and job satisfaction of teaching professionals. Given the cessation of Labour’s policy of large capital investment in the creation of new school buildings this research now serves to illustrate the important and value that capital investment in schools merely beyond the creating what may be seen as improved facilities and teaching and learning environments.

Project sample and design
This study involved two new schools that had been created in the West Midlands of England during the period of Labour’s policy (1997-2010). One primary school was rural in its location and had less than 100 pupils on roll, whilst the other school was in an urban setting and had more than 300 pupils on roll. Though not representative of the range and styles of new settings being created during this period, the sample did allow the research to be informed by differing locations as well as a variety of staff viewpoints. This in turn led to a more coherent understanding of the influence that new schools could have upon teaching professionals working within them.
The design for the research took the form of a longitudinal study over two years. The reason for this design was to firstly allow teaching staff sufficient time to settle into their new schools and to reflect upon this move and secondly to examine how their view of working in such a new environment may vary, if at all, over an extended period of occupation. During the summer of 2010, 19 primary teaching professionals including teachers and teaching assistants were involved in semi-structured interviews, and in the summer of 2011, 18 teaching professionals were again interviewed. In addition, to provide a regional overview regarding the influence that new schools were having upon stakeholders associated with such new buildings, architects and local authority inspectors were also interviewed.

IoE RD (3)

Selected key findings
The study clearly identified that new schools provided improved facilities, resources, and flexible teaching and learning spaces for teachers and pupils. The study also confirmed that the provision of such new schools aided the meeting of statutory guidance and legislation with regards to community and ICT usage, environmental impact, design quality and sustainability, health and safety, accessibility, and inclusion of all stakeholders. Further to this the findings reinforced the positive influence that the new school buildings were having upon the motivation, morale and job satisfaction of teaching professionals. This resulted in individuals feeling that the new school building had helped ‘lift them’ and instilled them with a feeling that they could do a ‘better job’.
Such findings have clear links to the research of authors such as Day and Kington (2008) who have investigated what may be termed as ’professional identity’ and suggest that a sense of ‘professional self’ may vary as a direct result of a change in what they consider to be the three dimensions of identity i.e the personal (life outside school), situated (located in the specific school and context) and professional (the educational, social and policy expectations). Linked to the ‘situated’ aspect noted above, findings from this study indicated that the feeling that these new schools had generated had gone way beyond just improved levels of motivation, morale and job satisfaction and had, in fact, led to a reappraisal of teaching professionals’ sense of professional identity.
However, despite such positive findings noted in this study, the research also suggested that the creation of these new school buildings, for some teaching professionals, had in fact had little/if any real influence upon their sense of professional identity. For them, what may be deemed the ‘intrinsic satisfiers’(Dinham and Scott, 2000) of teaching (i.e. growing professionally, promoting pupils’ learning and working with staff and pupils), provided the key drivers and motivator for them professionally.
Though this study has served to outline the benefits of creating new schools in terms of positively influencing the motivation, morale, job satisfaction and professional identity of teaching professionals, it has clearly shown that for some teaching professionals, the initial calling to teaching remains strong no matter how much you seek to improve the working environment.

References
Day, C and Kington, A (2008). Identity, well-being and effectiveness: the emotional contexts of teaching. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. 16(1), 7-23
DFES (2002) Schools for the Future. http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/3149/bulletin95%5B1%5D.pdf (accessed 27/07/08).
DFES (2003) Consultation Go-Ahead to Build Schools of the Future. Press Notice 26/6/03. London: DFES.
DCSF (2008) Investment in School Buildings 2008-2011. www.teachernet.gov.uk/_.../InvestmentInSchoolBuildings2008-2011A4Leafletv3%5B1%5D.pdf (accessed 17/03/09).
Dinham, S. and Scott, C. (2000) Moving into the third, outer domain of teacher satisfaction. Journal of Educational Administration 38(4): 370-396.
Guardian (2010) School Building Programme Scrapped in Latest Round of Cuts. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/05/school-building-programme-budget-cuts (accessed 28/01/11).

Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the generosity and kindness of the staff who gave up their time to make this study possible.

For further information, please contact Dr. Colin Howard: c.howard@worc.ac.uk 01905 542494