An analysis of job satisfaction levels of physical education teachers in Ankara, Turkey

This study was conducted to determine job satisfaction levels of physical education teachers. The population of the study consists of 1953 physical education teachers working in public secondary schools and high schools of the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in Ankara in the 2017-2018 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 265 physical education teachers working in Ankara. Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) with 20 questions was used as the data collection tool. In addition, a personal information form consisting of 7 items related to the professional and personal information of the respondents was developed. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 21 package program. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H and ANOVA tests were used for data analysis. The findings of the research revealed that the physical education teachers who participated in the study were generally satisfied with their profession. It was also found that gender and marital status had no significant impact on the job satisfaction levels of the physical education teachers (p>0.05), while a significant difference was detected between teachers who work in schools where sufficient amount of sports equipment is available and those working in schools that lack enough equipment (p<0.001).


INTRODUCTION
A major objective of education is to raise individuals who understand the needs and philosophy of the nation. The important thing is to support the development of the country in all areas. As many institutions and organizations have a role in achieving this goal, the place of educational institutions is especially important. In this role distribution, the contributions of teachers to the education system should be underlined. Teachers are indispensable actors of educational institutions in the educational process. They are the architects that shape and change the future generations and, accordingly, the structure of the nation. Teachers may encounter many problems related to their profession or due to the conditions of the schools they work at. Unless solutions are found for these problems, job satisfaction levels may decrease. Job dissatisfaction can lead to job absenteeism, high turnover rates, demoralization and polarization in relations with employees and managers, which leads to reduced productivity in schools. For this reason, it is important to provide a peaceful working environment so that teachers can demonstrate all their professional skills in the schools they work at. Positive and negative situations affecting job satisfaction should be identified and alternative solutions should be created to eliminate situations that negatively affect job satisfaction. Teachers are the most important weapon in the economic, social and cultural development of a society. Mezirlioğlu (2005) states that teachers need to work happily and efficiently in order to help social development, increase the level of welfare and raise the new generation in a qualified manner.
The Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) is used to determine how satisfied or dissatisfied respondents are with their jobs. Many factors could be employed to determine job satisfaction, which may affect job satisfaction due to individual differences; thus, assessing a criterion such as job satisfaction requires other variables besides those which are measured by simple questionnaires as they might influence the results.
This study was conducted to determine job satisfaction levels of physical education teachers based on gender, marital status, age, experience, school level, gym availability, and sports equipment availability (Table 1). They rated themselves on 20 questions on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied).
This study is based on 3 hypotheses: 1) Gender factor has no effect on job satisfaction levels of physical education teachers.
2) Job satisfaction of physical education teachers new in the profession is higher.
3) Teachers working at schools with no material shortage are more satisfied.
The findings obtained from the present study proved the accuracy of these hypotheses.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Teaching is a profession that needs specialization in different fields carrying out the duties of governments with respect to the education of individuals and related administrative processes (MEB, 1973). It is a respected profession that transfers the cultural heritage to future generations and educates the qualified and moral manpower of the future of the country. Governments and communities highly depend on teachers. Teachers, who shape the future by shaping their students, have always played an important role in the development of societies. They are role models for students as every kind of behavior of the teacher inside and outside the class has a great impact on them (Recepoğlu, 2013). Therefore, well-educated teachers with better professional and economic conditions are of high importance for the welfare of society.
One can define education as a branch of science helping to guide and raise generations in line with predetermined goals (Çelikkaya, 1997). Education is a force that changes and improves the structure and dynamics of the society allowing people to live at a higher level of welfare (Bilge, 1989). Adesote and Fatoki (2013) states that education is a very socially oriented activity and quality education has traditionally been associated with strong teachers having high degrees of personal contact with learners.
The main purpose of education systems is to train individuals in accordance with the general structure and philosophy of their countries, thus supporting the development of the country (Koç, 2014). According to Oktaylar (2007), education supports the development of individuals in terms of physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological and social aspects, assists them in selfrealization processes and helps them grow up as individuals compatible with society. The main objectives of education are to raise fully equipped individuals who are physically, mentally and emotionally developed as active members of the society contributing to the community in which they live by helping them transfer their culture to the next generations (Sarımsak, 2009).
Physical education is all of the activities aimed at improving one's physical and mental health and motor skills. Physical education helps to raise intelligent and moral individuals with better motor skills that help others, respecting human rights, and following the rules of society (Aracı, 1999). Physical education is a set of activities aimed at the education of the whole personality without competition to increase the level of productivity as much as the age and hereditary capacity of the person allows (DPT, 1977). Ward (2014) contends that the movement cultures perspective offers a useful conceptual vantage point from which to seek to strengthen the integration of sport and Physical Education.
According to Baykoçak (2002), among the aims of physical education are to improve the physical and mental health of the individuals, to strengthen their willpower and personality, to activate the undiscovered features and creative aspects of the person, to help people evaluate their free time efficiently, and to bring the marginalized people into social life such as criminals and those with disabilities.
Physical education teachers should be disciplined, knowledgeable, and competent in their fields and in the teaching profession. They should be able to communicate effectively with their students and motivate them properly (Tamer and Pulur, 2001). Fan (2015) believes that physical education teachers should also pay attention to the ideological education of the student as well as the development of the body. He indicates that the good relationship between teachers and students affects students' learning behavior and change the concept of student learning. Therefore, it is important to cultivate students' good moral character and to establish the students' will to endure hardship.

Job satisfaction
Business is an effort to produce goods and services for a fee in an organized environment within a limited time.
Work is defined as the role that an individual performs as a profession that he/she determines for himself/herself in society. Job satisfaction is the happiness of those who work in business life. Job satisfaction has an affective dimension, so the extent to which the employees have achieved satisfaction can only be defined by their job perspectives (Sabuncuoğlu and Tüz, 1998). Job satisfaction is the financial benefits that an employee gains from the work and the happiness he/she achieves from the creation of a product with the colleagues with whom he/she likes to work in an environment where he/she enjoys working (Çavuşoğlu and Özcan, 2016). Job satisfaction directly affects the productivity of the institutions, including schools. It is reported that the quality of education increases or decreases according to job satisfaction levels of school administrators and teachers (Agaoğlu, 2011). Serinkan and Bardakcı (2009) stated that job satisfaction is important for both employees and organizations.
The multidimensional psychological responses related to job satisfaction have cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional) and behavioral components (Mouloud et al., 2016). Job satisfaction can also be defined as an attitude based on the positive and negative evaluations individuals hold towards their work (Carson et al., 2016).
Factors affecting job satisfaction: job and job quality, management and evaluation, wages and benefits, promotion and development opportunities, working conditions, ınterpersonal relations, control, age, seniority, gender, and marital status. Factors affecting job satisfaction of teachers can be listed as follows (Özkan, 2017): 1)Teacher's personality, 2) Demographic characteristics of the teacher, 3) Level of professional skills and abilities, 4) The criteria by which professional success is evaluated and at what level,   Hierarchy of Needs is the most well known of the theories that explain the needs that affect human behavior. Abraham Maslow argued that the most important factor that influences and directs human behavior is needs (Kula and Çakar, 2015). As a result of his research, Abraham Maslow has gathered the needs of people under five headings: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization (Yeşil, 2016). ERG theory was proposed by Clayton Alderfer. Alderfer further developed Maslow's hierarchy of needs by categorizing the hierarchy into his ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness, and Growth) (Başaran, 2008). Unlike Maslow's theory, there are no boundaries and hierarchical order defined by sharp lines between the steps of requirements. Requirements may arise without being bound to any order, and more than one group of requirements can motivate the individual. (Eren, 1998;Eroğlu, 1998).

Research group
The population of the study consists of physical education teachers who work in public (government) secondary and high schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in districts of Ankara. The number of physical education teachers employed in Ankara was found to be 1953. The convenient sample size was calculated to be 235 by using the convenience sampling method. The reason why we employed convenience sampling is that it is a specific type of non-probability sampling method that relies on data collection from population members who are conveniently available to participate in a study. The authors applied the scale to 265 teachers in case unexpected problems might arise.

Data collection tool
The research consists of two parts. The first part includes demographic questions. The second part includes the Minnesota job satisfaction scale which was developed by Weiss et al. (1967), adapted to Turkish by Baycan (1985). Gündüz (2008) calculated the Cronbach's Alpha coefficients as a measure of consistency between items. Accordingly, the reliability coefficient Cronbach Alpha value was found to be 0.93. This value shows that the reliability level of the questionnaire (0.80≤a<1.00) is quite satisfactory.

Data analysis
Data analysis was performed by using SPSS 21 package program. The reliability of the data was assessed by the Cronbach Alpha test, which indicated that α = 0.851 test result is highly reliable (Alpar, 2017). Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H and ANOVA tests were employed in the analysis of the data. We used the Mann-Whitney U test to compare differences as the dependent variable was not normally distributed. Table 2 is a comparison of the total job satisfaction scores of the participants by gender according to the Mann-Whitney U test. There was no statistically significant difference with a 95% confidence level (p=0.359). Table 3 shows the comparison of job satisfaction total scores of the participants by marital status according to the Mann-Whitney U test. There was no statistically significant difference with a 95% confidence level (p = 0.627). Table 4 shows the comparison of job satisfaction levels of the participants by age groups according to the Kruskal-Wallis H test. There was a statistically significant difference with a 95% confidence level (p<0.038). In order to determine which age group or age groups the difference arises from, the age groups are compared in pairs and the results are presented in Table 5.     Table 5 shows the pairwise comparison of the job satisfaction levels of the participants by age groups according to the Mann-Whitney U test. We found that the participants of 30 years of age and younger had higher job satisfaction levels than the others (p <0.05). Table 6 reflects the comparison of the job satisfaction total scores of the respondents according to the Kruskal-Wallis test. A statistically significant difference was found with a 95% confidence level (p<0.007). In order to determine which experience group or groups the difference arises from, these groups were compared in pairs and the results are presented in Table 7. Table 7 shows the pairwise comparison of job satisfaction total scores of the participants by experience according to the Mann-Whitney U test. The respondents with experience of 1-5 years were found to have higher job satisfaction levels than the others (p<0.05). Table 8 compares the scores provided from the responses to the question "Does the school lack sports equipment?" and total job satisfaction levels according to the Mann-Whitney U test. It was found that there was a statistically significant difference with a 95% confidence level (p<0.001). The teachers working at schools with no material shortage had higher job satisfaction levels than the ones who work at schools where there is a lack of sports equipment.

DISCUSSION
Research has shown that job satisfaction is an important factor that maintains a high level of performance and the low levels of job satisfaction may lead to lower productivity, loss of interest and as well as a low level of organizational commitment. Job satisfaction has a clear impact on physical education teachers' level of organizational commitment. This relationship affects the quality of education and student achievement levels (Mouloud et al., 2016). To conclude, it is stated that there a significant relationship between psychological wellbeing, educational satisfaction, and happiness (Demirbatir, 2015). 265 physical education teachers were included in this study. The findings release that total job satisfaction levels by gender do not differ. This is a testament to the fact that women exist as individuals in society and in business life and contribute to country development and education, and that there should be no gender discrimination as women can do their jobs properly against all odds. There are many studies giving similar results in the literature (Tamcahan, 2012;Türkçapar, (2012) ;Göktaş, 2007;Çavuşoğlu and Özcan, 2016;Arabacı et al., 2005).
There was no difference between the marital status categories in terms of job satisfaction total scores. Türkçapar (2012) and Umay (2015) obtained similar results in their studies in terms of the relationship between marital status and job satisfaction levels. This can be explained by the fact that physical education teachers can separate their personal lives from their professional lives.
One of the results of this study is the fact that participants younger than 30 years of age have higher job satisfaction levels than the others. This suggests that teachers under the age of 30 start the profession enthusiastically and maintain their enthusiasm for a while. Considering the teacher employment policies of the Ministry of National Education and living conditions in the country, the fact that they have jobs and salaries might have increased their job satisfaction. Mumcu (2014) and Göktaş (2007) also report similar results.
This study alsoı revealed that teachers with the tenure of 1-5 years had higher total job satisfaction scores than the other participants. This might be due to the fact that that the new teachers have not yet encountered problems and difficulties related to the profession.
This paper also indicates that teachers with no material shortage have higher job satisfaction. Similar results were reported by Mirzeoğlu et al. (1996). Yüzüak (2006) found that physical education teachers had difficulty processing the curriculum because of the material shortage. This suggests that a lack of necessary sports equipment might lower job satisfaction levels of physical education teachers.
There is a positive relationship between job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational commitment (Mouloud et al., 2016). Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2015) stated that all 34 informants responded to the introductory question about immediate thoughts about working as a teacher by emphasizing high job satisfaction. Ali and Dahie (2015) also found that the level of job satisfaction of the teachers involved in their study was at a high level. Ordu (2016) found in his research that sub-dimensions of diversity management as individual attitudes and behaviors, organizational values and norms, administrative practices and policies together predict the general job satisfaction significantly.
To conclude, the physical education teachers who participated in this research are generally satisfied with the profession and have job satisfaction. However, there are two issues that need to be emphasized: the inadequacy of the number of gymnasiums and the lack of sports equipment. These two issues should be taken into account by the authorities and need to be addressed immediately so that physical education and sports courses can be processed in accordance with the course outcomes in the appropriate environment to increase students' interest and motivation as well as the job satisfaction levels of the physical education teachers.