This study examined rural education scholars' claims that educational policy makers should pay more attention to location variables: rural, suburban and urban. The policy issue chosen was teacher job satisfaction in Florida. Based on rural education theories, the researcher expected to find distinct differences between rural and urban teachers on factors of job satisfaction. Differences found in this study would support these rural scholars' claims. / The research questions of this study were: (1) Does a difference exist between rural teachers' and urban teachers' perceptions of factors influencing their job satisfaction? (2) What is the nature of the difference, if any? (3) Can the difference found, or lack of such, be explained by existing rural education theories? / A secondary analysis of data from the Florida Educational Standards Commission (FESC) was conducted. The survey contained three parts: (1) structured questions on job satisfiers; (2) open-ended questions on teachers' three major dissatisfiers; and (3) demographic information. A random sample of 201 Florida teachers was selected. The survey achieved a 100 percent response rate. / The analyses included: (1) a comparison of response frequencies by urban, suburban, and rural groups; and (2) a discriminant analysis by factor on the structured questions. Six job satisfaction factors were developed by grouping survey items according to operationalized factors in the literature. / A statistically significant difference between groups was found. The difference found, however, was between rural and suburban teachers, whereas differences were anticipated between rural and urban teachers. This makes sense theoretically since the dominant educational model has been Conant's consolidated, suburban school. A major recommendation was that rural educators need to make careful distinctions between "urban" and "suburban." Statistically significant findings were: (1) community differentiates rural and suburban teachers; (2) professional development differentiates the primary and secondary teachers; and (3) internal school management differentiates the primary and secondary teachers by rural and suburban locations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-08, Section: A, page: 2051. / Major Professor: Sydney R. Grant. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77815 |
| Contributors | Mandolang, Nadine Hoover., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 150 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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