Where data rule the roost – teachers’ perspectives on job satisfaction, autonomy and change in UK post-compulsory education

The shortage of teachers continues to be not only a national, but an international issue, with serious consequences for the educational system. Retaining teachers and making sure they have optimal levels of job satisfaction to support their hard work should be a top priority. Many variables connected to teacher well-being can impact teacher professional development, management of workload or even attrition from the profession, and so our research comes into play, connecting numerous aspects of the teaching profession. Our aim was to find out how post-compulsory UK teachers view their autonomy and job satisfaction, how much perceived constraints impact their work through a cross-sectional empirical study on a sample of 103 respondents. Results demonstrate that work flexibility and teacher autonomy vary greatly, depending on the institution or awarding body. Job satisfaction was found to correlate significantly with teacher autonomy. Suggestions for future research are made, based on our findings and the specificity of the data collected, demonstrating scope for additional studies on the vital topic of teacher autonomy in the UK educational sector.