Author:

Keywords:

Job satisfaction, Teachers

Abstract:

How to make sure that newly qualified teachers keep teaching? Research shows that the job satisfaction of young teachers determines to a great extent if they dropout or not. Literature suggests that one of the reasons for the low level of job satisfaction in novice teachers can be found in the lack of support at school. Novice teachers are supported informally by their colleagues, who also provide them with practical information, help and feedback, but not every collegial network provides equal learning opportunities. The characteristics of the collegial network needs to be taken into account, i.e. the accessibility of the network, the knowledge present in the network, appreciation of this knowledge by the member of the network and the psychological safety of the members. Thus, this project studies the mediating role of social informal learning between the characteristics of the collegial network and newly qualified 226 teachers’ job satisfaction. This project tries to open the black box of social informal learning, or more specifically the exchange of feedback, information and help with colleagues. First data will be collected from novice teachers (< 3 years of experience) teaching in the Dutch speaking community of Belgium. The results from this first cross-sectional questionnaire study will be reported on the Sunbelt conference.