Teacher job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession: Relations with school context, feeling of belonging, and emotional exhaustion

Abstract

This study examines the relations between school context variables and teachers’ feeling of belonging, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. Six aspects of the school context were measured: value consonance, supervisory support, relations with colleagues, relations with parents, time pressure, and discipline problems. The participants were 2569 Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school. The data were analyzed by means of SEM analyses. All six school context variables were related to job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession. These relations were primarily indirect, mediated through feelings of belonging and emotional exhaustion.