Professional Commitment of Teachers in Public Universities in Addis Ababa

Abstract

Previous studies have confirmed that teachers’ commitment is one of the vital elements determining the success of any educational system. However, there was a paucity of research that measured teachers' professional commitment using occupation-specific scale; and also linked it to demographic factors. The purpose of this study was to measure teachers' professional commitment using occupation occupation-specific scale comprising five dimensions, namely commitment to students, to the profession, to society, to achieving excellence, and to basic human values. The study examined teachers’ professional commitment in terms of their gender, teaching experience, and education level in public universities in Addis Ababa. To this end, 590 teachers were recruited from four universities through a proportionate random sampling technique. A standardized questionnaire with forty-five items was used for quantitative data collection. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. For descriptive analysis frequency, mean and standard deviations were employed while independent t-tests and ANOVA tests were employed for inferential statistics. The results indicated that the overall professional commitment level in four universities was found to be at a moderate level. The results further demonstrated that teachers’ professional commitment was found to be significantly different among teachers in terms of gender, teaching experience, and education level. Based on the findings, it is recommended that to ensure a high level of teachers' professional commitment, public universities need to explore issues related to demographic factors; and improve work conditions to retain satisfied and committed teachers.