The Influence of New School Buildings upon the Motivation, Morale and Job Satisfaction of Teaching Professionals

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.