AUTONOMY IN THE WORKPLACE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS

This study aimed to determine the job autonomy perceptions of secondary school teachers working in public and private schools. The universe of the study composed of secondary school teachers working at private and public schools in Gaziantep city center during the academic year of 2016-2017. The sample group was determined through a random sampling method. The respondents included 500 teachers working at 16 distinct schools, half of which were private schools and the other half were public ones. The research data were collected through the Work Autonomy Scales. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA analyses were applied to the data set. According to research results, teachers working at both types of schools had similar autonomy perceptions except for taking initiative pertaining to work and doing specific work activities. The comparisons indicated that the difference between the two was in favor of private ones. Additionally, while there was a high level of significant difference between teachers' opinions at both types of schools based on the variable of gender, no statistical difference was detected by the variable of age. A high level of significant difference was found in favor of public ones for the variable of professional seniority.

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