To the knowledge of the researcher no study has so far been attentive to:
the conceptual framework for teachers’ time-use inside and outside schools,
the analytical framework for teacher time allocation behaviour,
the empirical estimation of the problem of teachers’ time budgets in the teaching profession,
the empirical estimation of the problem of teachers’ time shares in the teaching profession,
conducting econometric estimation of time allocation in terms of the budget and time shares,
identifying the key determinants of teachers’ workloads using different definitions of work time,
using various definitions of overload status to profile teachers’ time-use,
incorporating characteristics of teachers in different full time equivalent employment status in examining the determinants of the extent to which teachers are overloaded,
identifying key factors that influence teachers’ time-use, and,
To the knowledge of the researcher no study has so far been attentive to combining the
conceptual, analytical and empirical estimation of the problem of teachers’ time allocation behaviour in the teaching profession. The thesis makes a significant contribution in these ten
areas and also in other areas that include: contribution to knowledge; contribution to
methodology; contribution to practice (making teachers and administrators aware of the
determinants of time-use); and, contribution to policy (making policy makers aware of the
link between time-use and workloads and the general ambience of teachers’ work lives).
Time-use becomes a good proxy of workload. The thesis therefore adds more theoretical and
empirical rigour to earlier studies on workloads of teachers. It is imperative that full
cognisance be given to the fact that: teachers’ productive activities change over time. More-
so, teachers come from households, and as their household characteristics change so does the
teacher’s contribution to the household (adjustments in space and time are required) and to the school. It is important to note that in studies on why people become teachers – the
household model, although not explicitly studied, features predominantly. So, it should be a
natural extension that a household model be applied to the way teachers allocate their effort
to their work or tasks. The (principal) advantages of time as a measure of production are that:
(i) time varies principally with the amount of work, (ii) time is a measure of work
completed/done (but not the results of work accomplished); (iii) time is expressible in
different units (which allows for time compression or time expansion), and (iv) time-use
patterns can be extracted from data that are easy to collect (Chapin, 1976; Walker & Woods,
1976; As, 1978; Niemi, 1993; Lindquist & Kaufman-Scarborough, 2007), particularly using
time diaries (Robinson, 1985; Juster & Stafford, 1991; Robinson & Bostrom, 1994; Drago et
al., 1999; Joyce & Stewart, 1999; Herz & Frazis, 2002; Williamson & Gardner, 2004;
Although time-use studies can be developed from data that are easily collectable, a
descriptive analysis of time-use data is fairly limiting. Even though simple descriptive
analysis contributes significantly to methodology, practice and policy, such analysis could be
enhanced considerably by use of inferential analysis. It is in that regard that time-use data
from Gardner and Williamson (2004) is further analysed in order to showcase the significant
inferential aspects of teachers’ time-use patterns. In order to use data that allow for
confidence in the use of teachers’ time budgets and time shares, a subset of data from Gardner and Williamson (2004) study is used. The subset of data focuses on primary school
teachers. The focus on primary school teachers only is dictated by the number of degrees of
freedom accorded by the data for the purpose of empirical evaluation, in the context of the
empirical techniques employed. It is prudent to mention that results similar to those reported
for primary school teachers also were produced for secondary school teachers, principals,
TAFE teachers, technicians and teaching assistants. These results are not reported in the
thesis, and for the sake of containing this thesis within reasonable length, the focus in this
thesis is purely on primary teachers.
This thesis is focused on the meaningful classifications of activities of primary teachers in
Tasmania, and the data thereof. It is significant to reiterate that these classifications were
done by an experienced teacher and researcher. Given that teachers’ time-use does not only
occur in schools, it is thus important to look at time expenditure during working and non-
working days. Data collected for each type of time period are important, therefore, in
providing a better, general picture of the teachers’ time allocation behaviour.
The thesis is significant in that it:
presents a framework or model that links or interweaves the qualitative and quantitative approaches used in earlier studies on time allocation of teachers,
investigates/analyses the workloads of teachers, quantitatively and qualitatively,
examines how teachers make use of their time;
identifies the factors or determinants of time-use by teachers,
presents a model of time-use by Tasmania teachers using a framework that is general enough to be extended to areas in education and outside of education,
shows the extent of teachers’ overload in the context of fully-developed conceptual, analytical and empirical framework; and,
builds a metaphor of the teacher’s thumbprint, that is rich especially in the way in which the metaphor embeds other metaphors on teaching, learning, schools and
educational reforms.