The Occupational Well-Being of Music Teachers in Rural Schools of Human Province

บทคัดย่อ

Teachers’ occupational well-being is crucial to teachers’ work performance and hence the students’ learning outcomes. In recent years, music education in rural schools has been attached great importance in China. This research attempts to probe into the occupational well-being of music teachers in rural schools of Hunan Province.  Specifically, this research aims to achieve the following research objectives: 1) the six dimensions of occupational well-being of music teachers in rural primary and secondary schools; 2) the relationship between the demographic characteristics of teachers and teacher’s occupational well-being.                      3) the relationship between the internal/external factors and the teacher’s occupational well-being. This research combines both quantitative and qualitative research. For quantitative research, Survey questionnaire used as the research instrument. Independent t-test, One-Way ANOVA and Multiple Regression are deployed. For qualitative research, One-to-one, semi-structured interviews have been conducted, with all the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Population in this research are the music teachers in rural primary and secondary schools of Hunan Province, which is around 7000. According to Taro Yamane formula, the sample size of the quantitative research should be over 378. This research received 410 valid samples based on the data analysis results, the study found that: 1) Among all the six components of occupational well-being, Occupational self-acceptance has the highest score. Job growth has the lowest score. 2) Demographic factors including age, education level, professional title, teaching age and income level are significantly related to occupational well-being. 3) A multiple regression model could be established, with an adjusted R square of 0.676, which includes the following factors: personal factor (Age), internal factors (work enthusiasm, perceived self-efficacy), and external factors (school administration, workload, satisfaction with salary, the position of music discipline in school). From the in-depths interviews, the study summarizes the five major underlying reasons that lead to low level of occupational well-being, as well as two underlying reasons that contribute to high level of occupational well-being. Furthermore, this research gives a preliminary conclusion on how the factors may influence on the six dimensions of occupational well-being based on all the analysis above, this research also provides new insights as well as recommendations that can help improve the occupational well-being of music teachers in rural schools.