What Makes Public School Teachers Happy in the New Normal? An Exploratory Sequential Study

Abstract

Teacher happiness is a critical component of effective teaching. When teachers are happy, it often translates into more effective and engaging teaching. This exploratory sequential research primarily aimed to explore the characteristics and sources of happiness of public-school teachers in the new normal and eventually develop a public-school teachers' happiness scale in the new normal. In gathering qualitative data, ten public school teachers underwent in-depth interviews while 302 public school teachers responded the initial survey questionnaire to determine the factor structures that significantly characterize the happiness of public-school teachers in the new normal through exploratory factor analysis utilizing the VARIMAX orthogonal rotation method with Kaiser normalization. Results revealed four significant themes generating 60 items for the preliminary questionnaire characterizing the happiness of public-school teachers in the new normal. After dimension reduction, the 60 items are distributed into six constructs which are all valid and reliable. The public-school teachers' happiness scale in the new normal captures the factor structures and sources of happiness of teachers in the new normal. The happiness scale in the new normal may help DepEd officials, school heads, teachers, and the community partners identify factors that enhance teacher well-being, leading to improved morale, job satisfaction, and overall school performance.