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Project

Consequences of different teacher workforce policies: Assessing the association between teacher workforce policies and student outcomes

This research looks at how teachers’ job environment relates to students’ outcomes in a broad set of school systems. In doing so, it provides relevant inputs for policy guidelines in this area. Previous evidence shows that teachers can make a difference when it comes to students’ educational outcomes, although it is unclear which are the specific characteristics and mechanisms that impact students achievement and non-academic results. The present study suggests that emphasizing the role of the school as teachers’ work environment is relevant to understand the multiple sets of variables that influence students’ outcomes. In order to do so, it draws on the Model of Job Demands and Resources -developed to explain employees wellbeing- and expands its implications to teachers’ performance. In this way, this research bridges an important gap in the literature, which is how teacher policies relate to students’ educational results.

Acknowledging that the ties binding teacher polices and students’ outcomes are distal, the research problem is analyzed in two steps. First, I look at the associations between teachers’ job environment and teachers’ job satisfaction and expectations to continue teaching based on TALIS 2018 data. Using Latent Class Analysis I explore typologies of schools according to teachers’ job demands and resources. On a second step, I test the relationships between teachers’ job environment and students’ outcomes based on TIMSS 2015 data. Direct and indirect associations between teachers’ job demands and resources and students’ achievement and motivation are analyzed by means of multilevel structural equation models.  

This research contributes to the growing discussion around teacher policies with a new insight that emphasizes the relevance of work environment, together with providing new evidence from more than 40 countries. The comparative approach enriches a discussion until now fed mainly with inputs from developed countries. 

Date:1 Aug 2018 →  1 Aug 2022
Keywords:Teacher workforce policies, Educational policies, Educational quality, Teachers' work environment
Disciplines:Education curriculum, Education systems, General pedagogical and educational sciences, Specialist studies in education, Other pedagogical and educational sciences
Project type:PhD project