Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

This research explores the impact of leadership practices on teacher job satisfaction in Saudi Arabian schools. Given the reform in the education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in recent years and its efforts to decentralise, the mainstream type of leadership employed by principals has evolved. Although efforts have been made, studies found that principals in KSA mainly implement transactional educational leadership practices, which can be linked to causing low teacher job satisfaction. Understanding the development of principals’ leadership and its influence on teachers’ job satisfaction is valuable to identify the challenges facing the Kingdom and the reasons for low teacher retention and job satisfaction. Although there is extensive research on the impact of educational leadership practices on job satisfaction in KSA, this tends to be rooted in a business or Higher Education setting. This research aims to draw on the findings of studies conducted globally to apply to the KSA setting. A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify and define the recognised global leadership practices and their evolution worldwide. These findings were compared to studies on educational leadership practices in KSA and were the basis for assessing the challenges that KSA faces in educational leadership and how they impact the levels of teacher job satisfaction. The study concluded that whilst efforts have been made to decentralise the KSA education system, there remain low levels of teacher job satisfaction. It offers recommendations on how this can be overcome, from reform in the education policy in KSA to the provision of training and development programmes for principals. It also offers suggestions for further research on educational leadership practices and teacher job satisfaction in KSA conducted on a larger scale to offer comprehensive findings and offer solutions for the challenges that schools face.

Course: Education Studies - BA - U2711FTC

Date Deposited: 2023-07-28

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14187.html