Effective supervision: Teacher perceptions regarding the influence of feedback on job satisfaction and career decisions

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of a two-way feedback system between teachers and school administrators in order to better understand how teachers perceive the influence of feedback on their job satisfaction, as well as in their decision to stay in teaching or leave the profession. Research has shown that teacher attrition negatively impacts schools and students (NCTAF, 2007) and teachers have expectations for the support they receive from their administrators (Roberson & Roberson, 2009). Therefore, it is vital that school administrators learn more about the factors that influence teacher job satisfaction in order to combat the issue of teacher attrition. According to a study by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) in 2003, nearly 1,000 teachers were leaving the profession every day for reasons other than retirement (NCTAF, 2003). Ingersoll (2004) found that a significant number of those teachers reported leaving because they received inadequate support from school administration. The goal of the study under investigation here was to learn from participants their perceptions on how feedback influenced their job satisfaction and decision to stay or leave the profession of teaching. The teachers in this study identified the value of both evaluation and supervision on their job satisfaction. A lack of either consistent evaluation or compassion in the delivery of evaluations had a negative impact on the teachers' feelings about their work. Supervision that was supportive and coaching in nature positively influenced job satisfaction, whereas supervision that was too data-driven was a frustration for the teachers. This mixed-methods study used a phenomenological case study approach to examine a two-way feedback system; the data was collected through interviews with teachers and principals, observations of interactions between teachers and administrators, a survey of a larger sampling of teachers, and a review of human resources documents pertaining to attrition rates and exit interviews. This approach allowed for future and present administrators to learn from the perceptions of current teachers and administrators, as well as those teachers who have chosen to leave the school.