This study examined the association between teachers' perceived needs for professional development (PNPD) and job satisfaction and the sequential mediating roles of collegial collaboration and autonomy of teaching. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of 3301 lower-secondary school teachers from South Africa's TALIS 2024, confirmatory factor analysis affirmed 11 latent constructs. Structural equation modelling revealed that PNPD were negatively associated with job satisfaction, while autonomy and collaboration were positively associated with job satisfaction. Collectively, PNPD, collaboration, and autonomy showed a meaningful combined association with job satisfaction. Serial mediation analyses indicated that the pathway “PNPD → collaboration → autonomy” was supported, whereas reverse ordering “PNPD → autonomy → collaboration” was not. These findings are broadly consistent with the self-determination theory perspective and suggest that the relatedness–autonomy link may operate in a context-specific manner.
Oduro et al. (Tue,) studied this question.