CAREER ASPIRATIONS AND CENTRAL LIFE INTEREST IN FEMALE TEACHERS

Abstract

The purpose of the investigation was to examine the nature of differences between a group of married female teachers with children who reportedly have the desire to seek advancement to administrative positions and a group of married female teachers with children who reportedly do not aspire to an administrative position. In this examination the following were considered: (1) age of subject, (2) age(s) of child(ren), (3) years of experience, (4) subject's perception of male employer supportiveness to women in leadership positions, (5) maternal employment, and (6) sex-role self-perceptions. The researcher proposed to determine which of the predictor variables alone or in combination will separate the groups significantly showing maximum separation.;A secondary purpose of the study was to examine the nature of differences between the following three groups: (a) the group of married female teachers with children with a job-focused central life interest; (b) with a non-job-focused central life interest; and (c) with a flexible focused central life interest.;One hundred thirty-eight currently married female teachers selected from 17 elementary schools with male principals responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Women as Managers Scale (modified and piloted for use in the study), the Central Life Interest scale, and a Personal Data Sheet eliciting information on age of subject, age of children, number of years that subject's mother worked (from birth to age 18), years of teaching experience, and the desire to seek advancement to administration.;Data were analyzed using a simple discriminant analysis using aspiration and non-aspiration as the dichotomous criterian variable. Number of job-oriented responses and number of non-job-oriented responses were entered as predictor variables in the stepwise procedure, along with the eight hypothesized variables (this modification was made since no subject met the criteria for classification of job-oriented). Seven of the ten requested variables produced significant Rao's V. The last two of the seven significant variables did not produce a significant change in Rao's V. This finding, that five variables in combination significantly differentiate aspirants from non-aspirants, supports the major hypothesis of the study.