Moving into the third, outer domain of teacher satisfaction

Models of teacher satisfaction post‐Herzberg have generally presented two mutually exclusive domains of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction. However, use of a survey with 2,000 teachers and school executive in England, New Zealand and Australia has provided evidence for a third domain of teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction grounded in the wider environment surrounding the school, a domain which has grown in importance and influence and which teachers and school executive find uniformly dissatisfying. This outer domain has acted to erode overall teacher satisfaction in contravention of the general principles of “two‐factor” theories of job satisfaction. It is argued that teachers, schools, and others with an interest in education, need to build bridges, forge partnerships and actively participate in educational discourse with members of this outer domain. Further, educational systems and governments need to look within the outer domain of teacher satisfaction for answers to the problems currently facing teachers, schools and society.