Teacher turnover is a considerable bother not only for public schools but also for private schools worldwide. Therefore, private schools need to understand the reasons for teacher turnover in order to design efficient strategies for addressing the problem. In the article titled “Factors affecting job turnover: A case study of private schools of District Swat,” Khan et al. (2017) explore different factors that affect turnover intentions among employees of private schools. Khan et al. (2017) proposed that job stress, low pay, and increased workload are positively associated with turnover intentions among teachers of private schools in District Swat. The present paper aims at analyzing the research article by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the research design.
The authors of the article conducted a correlational study to confirm that job stress, low pay, and increased workload are positively correlated with teacher turnover. In order to confirm three hypotheses, Khan et al. recruited 248 teachers from 45 private schools in District Swat and distributed a 21-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed by the researchers and tested for reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha. After the data was collected, the researchers conducted a correlation analysis to identify Pearson’s R coefficient between all pairs of four variables. The investigation revealed significant correlations (from 0.39 to 0.71) in all pairs of variables under analysis. After that, three regression analyses were with turnover intentions as the dependent variable and low pay, work stress, and increased workload as independent variables. The results revealed that the regression model of the workload against turnover intentions had the highest predictive ability (adjusted R2 = 42.8%). The researchers concluded that work stress plays a mediating role between turnover intentions and workload.
Critical Analysis
The credentials of the authors of the article are appropriate for the scope of the article and its purpose. Faisal Khan is a Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Swabi in Pakistan (Research Gate, 2020). He has 37 publications with almost 55,000 reads and 300 citations in the area of human resource management, human resource development, and marketing (Research Gate, 2020). He specializes in quantitative data analysis and survey methodology of data analysis (Research Gate, 2020). Therefore, Faisal Khan has a high level of expertise in the utilized research methodology and human resource practices. The co-authors also have appropriate qualifications to contribute to the study. In particular, all four co-authors are members of the Centre for Management and Commerce at the University of Swat and also known as experts in human resource management (Khan et al., 2017). Even though the authors do not specialize in educational research, their expertise is helpful for addressing the problem of teacher turnover, as it is a multi-faced issue that lies in both education and business spheres.
The article is well-structured, and the central idea is very easy to grasp even for an unprepared reader. Even though the intended audience is the administrative personnel of private schools, the information presented in the article may be relevant for other stakeholders in educational and business spheres. The authors provide a clear introduction that includes background information, identifies the purpose of the research, and explains its importance. Even though the research question is not articulated clearly, the hypotheses and research objectives help to understand what questions the authors aim to answer. The literature review is included; however, the authors failed to identify the gap in literature they were trying to address. aIn fact, the literature review revealed that the correlation between the discussed variables is well-studied, and there did not seem to be any need to conduct another research to confirm previous findings. However, it can be supposed that the research was conducted to improve the generalizability of the previous research and add knowledge about how these factors apply to private school teachers in Pakistan.
There are both strengths and limitations in the research design utilized by the authors. On the one hand, the researchers used highly reliable instruments (Cronbach’s Alpha between 0.725 and 0.874) and perfect sampling methods (Khan et al., 2020). The approach to data analysis was also relevant, as correlational studies use Pearson’s R and regression analyses (Cresweel, 2012). However, it seems irrational that the authors decided to create several regression models instead of creating a multiple regression model. Moreover, it was clear that due to the high correlation coefficient between the explanatory variables and findings of the literature review, work stress was a mediator between turnover intentions and workload. However, no mediation model was created, and the conclusion that work stress plays a mediating role between turnover intentions and workload does not have any ground, as there was no such hypothesis, and it was not tested.
Conclusion
Turnover among teachers in both public and private schools is a significant problem both in the US and abroad, as confirmed by the analyzed article. My experience confirms the findings of the research conducted by Khan et al. (2017), since work stress, low salaries, and increased workload often become the reasons for teachers to leave their jobs. I believe that the central reason for teacher turnover is work stress, which is increased by growing educational workload and paperwork. Teachers may also feel underpaid if their compensation is perceived too low for the amount of stress they need to experience. The article by Khan et al. (2017) can be used for my future research paper as it provides significant insights into factors that affect turnover intentions among private school teachers.
References
Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Pearson.
Khan, F., Mateen, A., Hussain, B., Sohail, M., & Khan, A. (2017). Factors affecting job turnover: A case study of private schools of District Swat. Sarhad Journal of Management Sciences, 3(1), 46-56.
Research Gate. (2020). Faisal Khan. Web.