Teachers’ Perceptions of Cost : Associations among Job Satisfaction, Attrition Intentions, and Challenges (Journal Article)

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Abstract: Research examining students’ perceptions of cost (i.e., what one must give up in order to complete a particular task), has been growing over the past decade; however, almost no research has examined teachers’ perceptions of cost. Given the importance of cost beliefs as predictors of students’ academic behavior and choices, an examination of teachers’ cost beliefs may provide new insights regarding the factors that motivate teachers. Using a multimethod approach, we found that four dimensions of teachers’ perceptions of cost (i.e., task effort, outside effort, loss of valued alternatives, emotional) were related to their self-reported job satisfaction and attrition intentions, controlling for competence-related beliefs and task values. We also examined how these perceptions of cost were associated with the challenges teachers reported experiencing in the classroom. Results indicated that in open-ended responses, teachers most frequently cited issues with students, teaching, and policy/administrators as challenges inherent to teaching; using the constant comparison method, analyses revealed that these distinct types of challenges were differentially associated with distinct dimensions of cost. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.