translation and thematic coding. I vetted each category against the definition of TWCs, as well as the definitions provided by the nine authors. I omitted three categories of TWCs that emerged during the narrative synthesis from the final typology because they do not fit the developed definition of TWCs and are not well-supported among the authors that provide narrative definitions of TWCs. Two of these categories, psychological elements and economic elements, are cited by a minority of authors that provide a narrative definition of TWCs. I also omit a third category, student demographic measures, which is not cited as a TWC by authors providing narrative definitions. I present my rationale and evidence for omitting these categories in the Findings section. Last, I organized the remaining categories, components, and sub-components into a typology of TWCs. Additionally, I generated definitions for the categories, components, and sub-components, which characterize what each category, component, and sub-component represent. The final construct definition consists of the TWCs definition and typology.
Findings
In this section, I explain the finalized TWCs construct definition, consisting of the TWCs definition and typology. In presenting the TWCs definition, I explain my rationales for
integrating or omitting key elements of narrative definitions of TWCs from the nine authors that provide them. Next, I explain my rationales as I applied the final TWCs definition to the
categories that emerged during the narrative synthesis. Last, I move to findings that describe the sample and construct definition as a whole.
Four main findings emerge from the narrative synthesis. First, researchers that provide a narrative definition of TWCs are in general conceptual agreement about what TWCs are. I provide a narrative definition of TWCs. Second, TWCs, as I have configured them, can be understood as a typology of categories and smaller components of those categories. Third,
researchers study TWCs as interrelated concepts, evidenced by the overlap of categories in the labels and measures of TWCs. Last, despite the conceptual agreement in narrative definitions of TWCs, there is significant variation in the ways that researchers decompose the concept of TWCs to study it, including the ways they label and measure it. This is evident in the variation and breadth of categories addressed in sample articles.
A definition of TWCs. As illustrated in Table 4, which is a tabulated form of the TWCs Definition spreadsheet, five of the nine articles with working definitions of TWCs use language indicating that TWCs are those elements of the workplace that are related to or impact teaching (Bascia & Rottmann, 2011; Berry et al., 2010; Cha & Cohen-Vogel, 2011; Johnson, 2006; Pogodzinski, 2014). Since this language is present in a majority of articles in the table, and no articles use language that disagrees with this phrase, I considered this phrase an agreed upon part of the definition of TWCs. From this point, any additions to the definition needed to, of course, agree with this phrase, which is my working definition of TWCs. In the following paragraphs, I discuss where two key elements cited by a minority of authors in Table 4 do not conceptually fit within this definition.
Only Johnson (2006) and Shen et al. (2012) include psychological states in their respective definitions of TWCs. I assert that psychological states do not conceptually fit the working definition of a TWC. I argue that psychological states are reactions to the working conditions in the school environment rather than working conditions themselves. The workplace is external to psychological processes, which occur internal to the teacher. A teacher’s sense of satisfaction in teaching or level of burnout are conditions that exist after interacting with TWCs and other facets of the teaching profession, whereas TWCs are independent of psychological states of individual teachers. For example, curriculum guidance available to teachers at a school
Table 4
Narrative Definitions and Key Elements of TWCs from Sample Articles
Source Year Source Text Key
Elements Bascia and Rottmann 2011 By ‘teaching conditions,’ we refer to factors
that repeatedly have been identified by teachers as critical to the quality of their work: class size and manageable workload; time available for professional, non-teaching work; resource adequacy; collegiality and stimulating professional interactions;
opportunities to learn and improve; support for professional risk-taking and experimentation; ability to influence school decisions; and congruence between individual and organizational goals.
quality of work
Berry et al. 2010 A plethora of studies show that many factors and circumstances determine whether qualified teachers can teach effectively. Effective teaching is not just about teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions — but also about the conditions under which they work.
teach effectively
Cha and Cohen-Vogel 2011 For the study, working conditions consists of non-pecuniary elements that describe teachers’ responsibilities and workplace.
workplace non- pecuniary, responsibiliti es
Feng 2014 The decision to change jobs is often modeled as
an individual’s utility, maximizing decision over a number of job choices. For example, Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin (2004) defined the problem a teacher faces in the following way: a teacher will select a group of schools based on individual preferences and job characteristics, including aspects that are pecuniary (salary) and non-pecuniary (working conditions).
non- pecuniary job
characteristi cs
Johnson 2006 The school as a workplace can be understood as having many features that together create the context for individual teachers’ work
(Johnson 1990), as detailed in Box 1. (Physical, Organizational, Sociological, Political, Cultural, Psychological, Educational)
context for teaching
Source Year Source Text Key Elements Kelley and Finnigan 2003 Organizational context variables include the
extent to which teachers perceive that: (a) information on past performance is reviewed and fed back into curriculum planning efforts (feedback), (b) organizational resources are directed toward efforts to achieve program goals (alignment), (c) there is a professional
community of teachers working together to improve teaching practice (community), (d) resources are controlled by teachers at the school site level (site-based management), (e) there is principal support for program goals (principal support), and (f) organizational goals compete with accountability goals (goal conflict). Context, feedback, alignment, collaboratio n, teacher influence, leadership support, goal alignment
Pogodzinski 2014 The focus of the work presented here is on working conditions related to the elements of the work environment which directly impact teachers’ ability to perform their job,
particularly those at least partially under the discretion of school administrators.
elements of work environment that impact ability to perform job Shen et al. 2012 School context is often referred to as the
‘‘hardware’’ of a school, defined by the physical background (e.g., location and resources), the student body (e.g., socioeconomic and racial-ethnic
compositions), and the educator body (e.g., levels of education and experience of teachers and principals)....School process is often referred to as the ‘‘software’’ of a school, defined by the learning environment (e.g., administrative policies, instructional
organization, school operation, and attitudes, values, and expectations of students, parents, teachers, and principals) (see Ma et al., 2008)...Career and working conditions, defined as the economic and psychological perspectives of the profession, have a strong relationship with teacher job satisfaction...These researchers have identified three issues about which teachers have the most concern: salary, class size, and school resources (for curriculum and instruction). economic and psychologic al perspectives of the profession
Source Year Source Text Key Elements Shirrell and Reininger 2017 School working conditions are generally
defined as those elements of teachers’
workplaces unrelated to their pay or benefits (Johnson, 2006; Ladd, 2011) and encompass a variety of aspects of schools, including their physical environments; organizational patterns of authority, supervision, and interaction among employees; employees’ characteristics, roles, and statuses; the sense of equity and voice among the staff; the strength and supportiveness of the school culture; teachers’ opportunities for learning and growth; and educational aspects of schools such as curricula and assessments (Johnson, 1990, 2006). teacher workplaces un-related to pay or benefits
precedes and exists independent of teacher satisfaction with this curriculum guidance. However, teacher satisfaction or dissatisfaction with curriculum guidance is a reaction to the condition or quality of the curriculum guidance. The psychological response of satisfaction with the
curriculum guidance chronologically follows the existence of the curriculum guidance and is dependent on the guidance’s existence. In this sense, psychological states, such as feelings of inclusion, satisfaction or burnout, are responses to working conditions. Therefore, I argue conceptually against psychological states as working conditions.
Second, only two authors from Table 4 specify psychological states as part of their definition of TWCs. Of the two authors that cite psychological states, Johnson (2006) does not name a psychological state in the list of “educational features,” where she delineates components of TWCs in her article. Further, Johnson is also the lead author on a second article in the
synthesis, Johnson et al. (2012). These authors use 44 different measures of TWCs but do not include any measures that are labeled by the authors as or categorized during the narrative synthesis as psychological states. Shen et al. (2012) produce six measures of their label “Career
and working conditions.” Two of these include measures of satisfaction, but they are measures of satisfaction with salary and content standards. Their use of satisfaction supports my assessment of psychological states as a reaction to working conditions. Shen et al.’s (2012) items measure teacher responses, in this case satisfaction, to salary and content standards. In the case of Johnson (2006), though she includes psychological states in a list of aspects of working conditions, she does not employ any measures of psychological states in either article in this synthesis. Shen et al. (2012) measure satisfaction, but their measures support my argument that psychological states are responses to TWCs and not TWCs themselves. With only two authors citing psychological states and the lack of conceptual fit with the definition of TWCs, I omitted the Psychological states category from the final construct definition.
The exclusion of individual psychological states to TWCs as a TWCs does not preclude intangible aspects of the workplace from being a TWC. Many intangible aspects of the
workplace fit this definition, such as the level of collegiality and the school orientation/climate because they are conditions of the external environment experienced by the teacher. To make this distinction obvious, I revised the definition with a clarifying sentence to read: TWCs are the elements of the workplacethat are related to or impact teaching; they do not include
psychological states (e.g. satisfaction, stress, burnout), as these are considered responses to working conditions, rather than conditions themselves.
In this and the next paragraph, I explain why TWCs are not pecuniary considerations (e.g. salary and benefits) of work and why they are not measures of student demographics. One article in Table 4, Shen et al. (2012), asserts that pecuniary considerations are part of TWCs. However, four articles in Table 4 disagree, each specifying that TWCs are unrelated to pay or benefits (Cha & Cohen-Vogel, 2011; Feng, 2014; Johnson, 2006; and Shirrell & Reininger,
2017). Not only are Shen et al. (2012) in the minority in citing pecuniary considerations, but they are refuted by four other authors that preclude pecuniary considerations as TWCs in their definitions. For example, Cha and Cohen-Vogel (2011) write, “working conditions consists of non-pecuniary elements that describe teachers’ responsibilities and workplace” (p. 376). Given that only one author cites pecuniary considerations and four authors specifically preclude this category, I revised the final definition to read: TWCs are the non-pecuniary elements of the workplacethat are related to or impact teaching; they do not include psychological states (e.g. satisfaction, stress, burnout), as these are considered responses to working conditions, rather than conditions themselves.
Applying the TWCs definition to the categories of TWCs from the narrative synthesis. With a definition of TWCs specified, next, I applied the definition to the categories that emerged during the narrative synthesis. Two key elements previously discussed, pecuniary considerations and psychological states, are also categories that emerged from the narrative synthesis. Subsequent to the discussion and conclusions above that these two elements do not fit the definition of TWCs and are not well-supported by authors that provide a narrative definition of TWCs, I omitted these categories from the typology of TWCs.
Second, student demographics emerge as a component of the student category in the narrative synthesis. Two sub-components of student demographics evident in the data are student race and socio-economic status (SES). I assert that student demographics are not TWCs and that the usage of student demographics to proxy for TWCs is not useful in developing a better understanding of TWCs. Of the 88 articles in the narrative synthesis, 16 include measures of student SES and/or race as part of their concept of TWCs. Hanushek and Rivkin (2007) explain their use of student demographics, “Although the Texas data contain neither teacher nor
administrator reports on working conditions, they do contain information on student
demographics, which we use as proxies for working conditions” (p. 75). They do not go on to explain how student demographics proxy for working conditions.
Race and SES are, of course, correlated with elements of schooling, such as funding levels and home resources, that do impact teaching. As such, demographic variables are blunt proxies for TWCs, but they do not provide substantive direction for policy or improvements. Thus, in the least, the use of these variables in measuring TWCs is not useful for improving policy around TWCs. At worst, using student race and SES as proxy measures of TWCs
misrepresents teachers’ experiences with minority and low-SES students. The focus becomes the students, rather than the unmeasured underlying conditions within which they must learn.
In considering whether student demographics are a TWC, I reference the narrative definitions of TWCs provided by the nine articles in Table 4. None of the articles cite student race or SES as elements of TWCs. Additionally, neither element fits into the developed
definition of TWCs because neither a student’s race nor income level directly impact a teacher’s ability to teach. For these reasons, student demographics, including race and SES, are not TWCs; thus, the component was omitted from the typology.
A typology of TWCs. In this section, I illustrate the remaining categories, components, and sub-components that meet the definition of TWCs as specified in this synthesis. I organized the categories, components, sub-components that emerged during the narrative synthesis into Table 5. I found that the remaining categories fall into two “meta-categories,” Actors and Constructs. In Table 6, I provide definitions of each category, component, and sub-component, which characterize what each represents. In the remainder of this section, I explain some features of the typology that I anticipate require elucidation or justification.
Table 5
Teacher Working Conditions Typology
Actors Constructs
Leadership & Teacher Empowerment General and Instructional Resources
Communication Instructional materials
Instructional Leadership Instructional supports
Management Access and sufficiency
Support Budget and spending
Teacher Evaluation Orientation/Climate
Teacher influence Innovation
Teacher Autonomy Learning Climate and Academic press
Teacher leadership Professional trust and respect
Students Recognition
Behavior Vision and beliefs
Orientation to Learning Professional Development
Habits Induction and mentoring
SWD and ELL Observing teaching
Faculty Venue
Collegiality Topic
▪ Collaboration Quality
▪ Cooperative effort Time
Quality and credentials Instructional time Position characteristics Non-instructional time
▪ Career advancement ▪ Planning time
▪ Workload ▪ Duties and paperwork
▪ Teaching assignment School Features
District, State, and National Officials Characteristics
Characteristics Class size
Accountability Hiring
Alignment Schedule
Communication Facilities
Professional organization membership Amenities Parents & Community Cleanliness
Communication Maintenance
Involvement and support Space
Influence Safety
Table 6
Definitions of TWCs Typology Categories, Components, and Sub-Components
Category & Description Components Coding Definition
Leadership & Teacher Empowerment
Communication The level of, clarity, and effectiveness of communication with teachers and families
The role of leadership in the school and the degree to which teachers are empowered to make and have input in school-wide and classroom decisions
Instructional Leadership The ability of leadership to guide instructional practices in the school Management The ability of leadership to manage day to day affairs, logistics, budgets, and
scheduling
Support School leadership's understanding of and actions to support teaching Teacher Evaluation The consistency and appropriateness with which evaluations take place
Influence The level of influence and input teachers have on school-wide decisions Autonomy The level of autonomy teachers have in classroom-level choices
Teacher leadership The degree to which teachers are provided and participate in leadership activities
Faculty Collegiality
Colleagues a teacher interacts with at a school, as well components that describe the teaching position at a school
· Collaboration Collaboration and learning around teaching · Cooperative effort Teacher cooperation in school-wide efforts Quality and Credentials
Position Characteristics
· Career advancement Pathways for teachers within teaching (e.g. master teachers, mentoring, teacher leader)
· Workload The cumulative responsibilities of teachers
· Teaching assignment The school level, grade (s), and subject(s) assigned to individual teachers Parents & Community
The role of parents and the community in the school and in student learning
Communication The degree and quality of communication between parents, the community, and the school
Category & Description Components Coding Definition
Involvement and Support The degree and quality of parental and community involvement, including actions undertaken by parents and the community on behalf of the school
Influence The level of influence parents and the community have on decisions made in the school
Students Behavior How students act at school
Student interactions with learning
Orientation to Learning Students' approach and attitudes toward learning, including engagement, motivation, and presence
Habits Students' habits that may affect their ability to learn, such as drug use, sleep habits, eating habits, and health
SWD and ELL Identification of a learning disability or English language learning levels that affect a student's ability to learn and instructional practice
School Features
School Features that affect teaching
Characteristics Features of schools that are demographic in nature and are usually difficult to change, such as school level (elementary, middle, high), enrollment, and location, including degree of urbanity
Class size Usually, the average number of students per classroom or course Hiring School hiring decision-making
Schedule School hours and class scheduling Orientation & Climate
The socio-cultural orientation of a school
Learning climate and Academic press
The socio-cultural language, media, and actions around learning in a school. Relating to academic press, this refers to the degree of emphasis on academic learning
Innovation The leadership and staff orientation toward learning or experimenting with new methods of teaching
Professional trust and respect The level of trust and respect teachers are afforded by leadership, parents, the community, students, and policymakers in their ability to perform their jobs. Though