Employment Guidance Teachers in Specialized Vocational High Schools
By In-Gon Kim
Dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy in Education in the Graduate School of Seoul National University, Korea, 2015
Major Advisor: Seung-Il Na, Ph. D.
The purpose of this study was to investigate employment guidance competencies and their relationships to school environment variables(principal's transformational leadership, consulting supervision, communities of practical activities, school-community partnerships), teacher efficacy, and job commitment of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools. In order to achieve the study goal, the following research plan has been set up. First, the level of employment guidance competencies for the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools was investigated. Second, employment guidance competencies and their relationships to school environment variables, teacher efficacy, and job commitment of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools were investigated. Third, the mediation effect of teacher efficacy in their relationships between the employment guidance competencies and school environment variables was investigated. Fourth, the mediation effect of job commitment in their relationships between the employment guidance competences and school environment
variables was investigated.
The target population of the study was the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools and a total of 1,398 employment guidance teachers specified in school education plan in 2014 were ultimately set as the study target.
And a total of 207 specialized vocational high schools(3 employment guidance teachers by each school) were randomly sampled with consideration for the areas and the specialized vocational high school types.
The questionnaires consisting of employment guidance competencies scale, principal's transformational leadership scale, consulting supervision scale, communities of practical activities scale, school-community partnerships scale, teacher efficacy scale, and job commitment scale were used as the research tool.
The employment guidance competencies scale was developed in this study including employment guidance plan, job skills check & feedback, business exploration &
management, job matching, and follow-up management according to the task domain of employment guidance. The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was satisfactory with 0.841～0.921. In addition, existing scales suitable for the study objective were used and reconstructed for the measurement scales for the variables which impact the employment guidance competencies, and the reliabilities and validities of the measurement scales were secured through the preliminary and main surveys.
The data was collected via a visiting survey and an e-mail from May 20 to May 27, 2015. A total of 513 of 621 questionnaires were returned(collect rate of 82.6%), and 436 questionnaires excluding unreliable responses were used for the final analysis. In order to investigate the relationships between employment guidance competencies and related variables, the descriptive statistic and the hierarchical regression analysis were conducted using SPSS for Window 20.0.
The findings of this study were as follows: First, the level of the employment
guidance competencies for the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools was the average value 3.36; employment guidance plan(3.67), follow-up management(3.52), job skills check & feedback(3.44), job matching(3.34), business exploration & management(2.85). And demographic variables(e.g. sex, position, career, established type) directly influenced on the level of the employment guidance competencies. In other words, male teachers, the department head teachers, high career teachers, and private school teachers had higher level of the employment guidance competencies than female teachers, common teachers, low career teachers, and public school teachers. Second, there are positive relationships between employment guidance competencies and school environment variables(principal's transformational leadership(β=0.203), consulting supervision(β=0.231), communities of practical activities(β=0.359), school-community partnerships(β=0.184)), teacher efficacy (β=0.161), and job commitment(β=0.425)) of employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools. Third, while the teacher efficacy(β4=0.592) of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools had mediating effects on the relationship between communities of practical activities(β3=0.308) of school environment variables and the employment guidance competencies, the teacher efficacy did not have mediating effects on the relationships between principal's transformational leadership(β3=0.168) and consulting supervision(β3=0.487) of school environment variables and the employment guidance competencies. Fourth, the job commitment(β4=0.488) of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools had mediating effects on the relationships between school environment variables(principal's transformational leadership(β3=0.198), consulting supervision(β 3=0.198), communities of practical(β3=0.327), school-community partnerships(β3=0.160), teacher efficacy(β3=0.105), and employment guidance competencies.
Based on the findings of this study, the following implications were derived: First, the level of the employment guidance competencies for the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools was the general level. While
employment guidance plan among the task domains of employment guidance was the highest level, business exploration & management was the lowest level. And the level of the employment guidance competencies for male teachers, the department head teachers, high career teachers, and private school teachers was statistically more significant than that of female teachers, common teachers, low career teachers, and public school teachers. Second, there are positive relationships between employment guidance competencies and school environment variables, teacher efficacy, and job commitment of employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools.
Third, while the teacher efficacy of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools had mediating effects on the relationship between communities of practical activities of school environment variables and the employment guidance competencies, the teacher efficacy did not have mediating effects on the relationships between principal's transformational leadership and consulting supervision of school environment variables and the employment guidance competencies. Fourth, the job commitment of the employment guidance teachers in specialized vocational high schools had mediating effects on the relationships between school environmental variable, teacher efficacy, and employment guidance competencies.
Based on the findings of the study, some recommendations for future research were suggested: First, in-service training programs on employment guidance plan, job skills check & feedback, business exploration & management, job matching, and follow-up management according to the task domains of employment guidance are needed for employment guidance teachers to increase the employment guidance competencies.
Especially, the lowest competency of business exploration & management should be focused. Second, the promotion of educational environment such as building academic-industrial cooperation systems and principal's support is needed to improve job performance of employment guidance teachers, since the low job performance competencies such as business exploration & management and advice for the students' parents result from the lack of educational environment, not from
employment guidance teachers' own competencies. Third, a proper plan to promote school environment, teacher efficacy, and job commitment is needed after investigating the characteristics of employment guidance competencies. Fourth, the various methods of study are needed to measure the level of employment guidance competencies besides the way used in this study. Fifth, further study is needed to compare and analyze the difference between the employment guidance competencies for employment guidance teachers in specialized vacational high schools this study showed and the competencies the school does need.
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Key Words : employment guidance competencies, school environment variables, principal's transformational leadership, consulting supervision, communities of practical activities, school-community partnerships, teacher efficacy and job commitment
Student Number : 2009-30284