Date of Award

January 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

First Advisor

Bonni Gourneau

Abstract

The first purpose of this study was to extend the literature on teacher demoralization (Santoro, 2011) by providing the second attempt to measure the phenomenon done by Carlson-Jaquez (2016). Exploratory factor analysis was used to analyze construct validity of an original self-report instrument for the assessment of teacher demoralization analyzed as three sub-scale constructs: shame, lack of autonomy, and uncertainty. Data was collected from a population of K-12 educators in one mid-western public-school district. Participants completed a self-assessment survey shared via email and rated their level of agreement on twenty-one questions. Five demographic questions began the survey’s 26 questions. Data was analyzed with principal axis factoring (n = 115) and revealed the theory of teacher demoralization should include three factors that were labeled by the researcher: perceived impact the profession has on mental health (PIP), demoralization as shame (DS), and demoralization as lack of autonomy and uncertainty (DLAaU). The second purpose of the current study was to analyze whether interaction effects of shame resilience, cognitive flexibility, and tolerance of uncertainty on their corresponding predictor variables (shame, lack of autonomy and uncertainty, respectively) were significant in predicting the criterion variable—mental health. Results revealed the theory of shame resilience (Brown, 2006) was the only moderator that was significant in predicting teachers’ perceptions of the professional impact on mental health.

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