Teachers’ Sickness Absence in Primary Schools, School Climate and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy

A high rate of teachers’ sickness absence is supposed to affect the quality of education within schools in a negative way. In the period 1978–88 teacher absenteeism showed a considerable increase in The Netherlands, especially in primary education. Differences between schools in teacher sickness absence are remarkable. The question is whether teacher absenteeism is related to school climate and teachers’ sense of efficacy in primary schools. These factors are selected because it can be assumed that they play a central role in the effectiveness of school development programmes aimed at driving back absenteeism figures. School climates of low absenteeism schools and high absenteeism schools are compared, and teachers’ sense of efficacy is related to absenteeism figures concerning individual teachers. Several school climate characteristics turn out to be strongly related to absenteeism scores at the school level. Teachers’ outcome expectancy is related to individual teacher absenteeism scores. Recommendations are discussed as to what a school manager might do if sickness abscence is recognised as a problem in the school.