Working time pressure and commitment

LSE study of the Green Paper pay system for teachers and its effects

Teachers before the 'Threshold'

4. Working time pressure and commitment

One very important factor conditioning teachers' responses to the Green Paper is their perception of the new system as punishment-centred. It rewards those judged to be doing well, but by implication it withholds rewards from those who are not. One should not underestimate this factor. It is easy for highly successful managers, political leaders, and consultants to forget such fears among those struggling lower down the pile. This feeling is captured in teachers' beliefs about a quota, that they cannot work any harder, and the general lack of fairness.

Although probably not intentional, fostering such fears among teachers jeopardises some of the key factors teachers find motivating about their work. Our first survey results echo the long working hours found in earlier School Teachers' Review Body working time surveys. Teachers in our sample worked a median 14.8 hours beyond 'directed time' in the week before the survey, equivalent to a term-time work week of over 50 hours⁸. The reasons they give for these extra hours are revealing, and have little to do with financial and promotion incentives. The most common reason given is that it was felt to be the only way 'to continue to give a high quality of education' to their pupils.

Type of out of hours activity	% of 'non- directed' hours devoted to each activity	First reason	Second reason
Lesson preparation and marking	54	Quality of education	To get the work done
Seeing parents and pupils outside class time	10	Quality of education	Activities occur after hours & don't let down pupils & colleagues
Involvement in school clubs, sports, orchestras, etc.	5	Activities after hours	Enjoy the work
School/staff management: meetings	11	Management pressure	To benefit school
General administrative tasks	14	To get the work done	Quality of education
Individual & professional development activities	5	Quality of education	Activities occur after hours
Total	100

These reasons mirror those given for remaining in teaching, which stress the intrinsic interest of their work over the financial and status rewards of their jobs. They also reflect the very high levels of commitment our survey found both to their schools and the teaching profession. These appear far above those of many other groups of workers in the economy.

In other words, teachers do not see themselves as cynically taking advantage of their relative job and pay security to enjoy 'on-the-job leisure'. If anything, they feel trapped into going the extra mile, or two, in order to give their pupils the quality of education they believe they deserve.

8. This compares with an average (mean) of 12.1 hours in primary, and 13.3 hours in secondary schools found by the STRB survey 1996, against a background of average weekly hours of 50.8 hours in primary and 50.3 hours in secondary schools.

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