Structural Model Analysis of Factors Affecting Sustainable Teacher Job Satisfaction in Korea: Evidence from TALIS 2018

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relationship between the preparedness, self-efficacy, career motivation, and job satisfaction of Korean teachers with the 2018 data of TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey). For this purpose, 1266 Korean middle school teachers were selected, and an analysis of mediating effects was executed by utilizing structural equation modeling and phantom variables. The results are as follows: teacher preparedness had a significant and positive effect on teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. However, it failed to show a significant effect on teacher job satisfaction, which was instead significantly and positively affected by teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. In addition, based on the analysis of the estimate of mediating effects, it was discovered that teacher career motivation had a greater positive effect than that teacher self-efficacy on teacher job satisfaction. Taking these results into consideration, this study accordingly makes suggestions concerning the improvement of sustainable teacher job satisfaction, self-efficacy and career motivation inside teacher education courses. Furthermore, this study will propose measures such as further valuing the Teaching Personality and Aptitude Test and strengthening in-depth interviews in student teacher selection, extending teaching experiences through simulated instruction and peer supervision as well as providing well-organized teaching professional counseling opportunities for student teachers.

1. Introduction

The renowned educational psychologist Haim Ginnot begins his work (1993) with a depressing conversation on the well-being of teachers [1]. This conversation, under the subhead The Theme of Despair, is filled with grumbles about how teaching could be such an unsatisfactory profession. The anecdotes shared therein are powerful indicators of how important teacher job satisfaction has been not only for teacher’s well-being but also for educational research as a whole.

The teacher is undoubtedly a crucial part of education; thus, teacher job satisfaction is also a major factor in whether education is successful as well as sustainable or not. The fact that higher teacher job satisfaction leads to better student achievement has already been identified in previous studies [2,3,4], and that teacher job satisfaction has a positive correlation with the school’s climate and culture has been affirmed through previous studies [5,6,7]. Additionally, many studies have already been conducted on external factors (pay, forms of employment, position, job conditions, etc.) as well as internal factors (sense of accomplishment, responsibility, challenge, the potential for development, etc.) for enhancing teacher job satisfaction [8]. Curiously, these studies share one thing in common—each one concerns the time after starting one’s professional teaching career. Thus, one could say that these studies concern the external situations and internal changes felt by incumbent teachers, those already finished with teacher education

However, it is insufficient to define teacher job satisfaction with these external and internal factors. We need also to consider the pre-service motive for pursuing the teaching profession, the process for becoming a teacher, and what psychological preparation went into that process. When the main focus shifts to the enhancement of teacher job satisfaction based on the external and internal factors—respectively the school and the mentality of the teacher—such grumblings fall outside of the field of consideration or are only supplemented with OJT. The reason behind this is that teaching is always in progress, teachers are already thrown into the field, and their teaching career is irreversible.

However, if one were to actively identify the cause for the dissatisfaction with teaching and use that knowledge to enhance the job satisfaction of teachers, the boundaries of our studies be inevitably and sustainably expanded to that of the teacher education course. Teacher preparedness not only affects the efficacy of the teacher from day one but will also hold an undetachable connection with the overall level of satisfaction maintained throughout the whole teaching career. Above all, since the job satisfaction of the teacher is directly connected to the well-being of the teacher as an individual human being—not just as a professional worker—it must be acknowledged as a subject of extensive research.

The stronger the process of training the teacher becomes (in both quantity and quality), the deeper the correlation between the teacher’s preparedness, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and career motivation becomes [9,10,11]. Thus, when decisions leading to a teaching career are made at younger ages and the more the process becomes unitary or exclusive, the density of teaching preparation will trend upwards. Therefore, the main question is exactly what kind of character and substance of teacher preparedness training is to be pursued in our society. Since, as mentioned before, the preparedness, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and career motivation of teachers are not simply a matter of the teacher as an individual; they affect the achievement of the students, the sustainability of school organization, and educational culture as a whole.

This study focuses on the case of South Korea in particular. As in the case of Australia which has different ways of teacher education (Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts with Bachelor of Teaching, and Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts) [12], Korea also has maintained a relatively open teacher training system for the past several decades. From the traditional teacher’s college to the teacher education courses of non -teacher’s colleges to graduate schools of education, the gateway to the society of professional teachers have been open to various groups. While the states and territories are responsible for the registration of teachers, conditions for teacher employment as well as qualification requirements in Australia [13], the Ministry of Education provides the guidelines and standards to universities, colleges, and graduate schools in Korea. Within the boundary of certification standards for teacher education (subjects, credits, practice, etc.) outlined by the Ministry of Education, but with a certain amount of autonomy, flexibility and sustainability, universities have trained the prospective teachers.

Yet, according to the new teacher education system’s reorganization plan announced in 2021, future teachers are only to be exclusively trained with the 4-year curriculum of a teacher’s college. As a result, the preparation process for prospective teachers will naturally become more unitary, concentrated, and inflexible [14]. This reorganization will in turn presumably lead to a change in not only the preparedness but also the efficacy and job satisfaction of teachers [15,16]. Additionally, the correlation between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction is also a matter directly linked to the “transformative competence” pointed out by the OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 [17]. Indeed, just as the OECD report clearly states, what transformative competence pursues is not only related to the well-being of the student; it is also intertwined with the well-being and the sustainability of the teacher him or herself. The more prepared a teacher is for the role of being a professional teacher, the more fit he or she becomes for the purpose of transformative competence: “creating new value, reconciling tensions and dilemmas, and taking responsibility” [17,18]. Based on these critical thoughts and needs, utilizing TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey), this study aims to explore the relationships between career motivation, preparedness, feelings of self-efficacy, and self-reported job satisfaction of current Korean teachers. The specific research questions are as follows.

First, does a relationship exist between the preparedness, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and career motivation of teachers?

Second, do teacher self-efficacy and career motivation show a significant mediating effect between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction?

2. Theoretical Background

The improvement of teacher job satisfaction, teacher efficacy, and career motivation is linked with higher qualities and quantities of early teacher education [9,10,11]. Initial teacher education has been the subject of sustained reform and debate [19]. Initial teacher education is an intensive experience that requires teachers to be both learners and teachers, and due to this complexity, policymakers in all nations struggle to effectively structure initial teacher development initiatives. In this study, the relationship between teacher preparedness, teacher self-efficacy, teacher career motivation, and teacher job satisfaction was analyzed in detail so that it could be used as basic data for effective initial teacher education.

2.1. Teacher Preparedness

Preparing, which literally means “to make or get (someone or something) ready for something that will happen in the future”, when combined with the teaching profession implies a period of “ready-ing” a teacher for change, as described in the transformative competence concept proposed by the OECD. The concept of preparedness differs from the verb “prepare” in that it indicates how well someone (e.g., a teacher) has already been prepared for something imminent [20]. Teacher preparedness cannot be separated from consideration of the purpose and curriculum of teacher education courses. This curriculum, as Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2007) point out, is determined and adjusted by the social group’s expectations for teachers. Thus, teacher preparedness is an overall concept overlapping the manner, qualities, and ethics that our society sustainably requests of teachers and considers crucial for the teacher’s success in the actual school [21].

In addition, teacher preparedness is connected to the standards of teacher competence required for performing professional duties, which include personal, pedagogic, professional, and social competencies. It also includes the mastery of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that are reflected in the habits of thinking and acting needed for carrying out the role of teacher [22]. Professional teachers are obliged to thoroughly plan and carry out a quality learning process, and assess and evaluate the outcomes of learning. In order to meet these obligations, the first step a teacher must take is to plan to learn, especially to compile a syllabus and a learning implementation plan [23]. Teacher preparedness is a clear indicator of how well and sustainably accustomed a teacher is to the roles and duties mentioned above.

2.2. Teacher Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is of course vital for the employee’s sustainable well-being and retention, which are both especially essential for high-stress occupations, such as teaching. Job satisfaction can be defined as the affective orientation of individuals towards their roles in the jobs they do, and their feelings and attitudes towards their jobs [24]. In the field of education, since the teacher is the most important implementing entity for improving classes and managing the school, teacher job satisfaction needs to be regarded as a core determinant for enhancing the quality of education. The job satisfaction of the teacher is a sentiment evoked by a complex interaction between the job itself and its every surrounding factor, a feeling which greatly affects the performance of the teacher and could also provide an opportunity for an even deeper focus on education [25].

Teachers are expected to love their professions, maintain a positive attitude towards their jobs, be satisfied with what their professions bring, and have high self-efficacy beliefs, feeling that they can fulfill the duties inherent in their jobs [26]. In the case of TALIS, teacher job satisfaction comprises satisfaction with the profession itself—including the role and work of a teacher—and also with the school environment. The variables representing job satisfaction for Korean teachers were categorized as either teacher or school characteristics, with the latter including variables associated with school demographics and the school climate [27].

2.3. Teacher Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is a central concept of Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory and is viewed as the foundation for human agency [28]. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can sustainably produce desired effects through one’s actions, thus having the power to create change [29]. According to Bandura’s theory, self-efficacy beliefs develop in response to four sources of information: enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal/social persuasion, and physiological and affective experience. The source that has the most powerful influence on self-efficacy is the “enactive experience”, in which the feeling of self-efficacy for a particular behavior is increased by successfully and sustainably performing it.

A teacher’s self-efficacy can be defined as the teacher’s beliefs about his or her capability to teach a subject matter effectively to students and bring about desired outcomes in both student engagement and learning [30]. Cerit (2013) found that the teachers’ level of self-efficacy regarding the students’ engagement and instructional strategies was positively associated with their willingness to enact curriculum reform in their classrooms [31]. This discovery is echoed by Donnell and Gettinger (2015), who claimed that teachers’ self-efficacy predicted their acceptance of a state-mandated reform agenda regarding the “Response to Intervention” (RTI) in the context of the US [32].

2.4. Teacher Career Motivation

Career motivation is a multidimensional construction consisting of elements such as career resilience, career insight, and career identity, and it determines the direction and strength of educational behavior [33,34]. An individual with higher motivation for a particular task or field displayed a higher effort level, persistency, and interest compared to others, and this disparity only grew wider when the individual faced difficulties concerning that matter [35].

The motivation for choosing and maintaining a teaching career is not any different. Thus, the teacher’s career motivation corresponds to the amount of sustainable effort and the actual intensity of action that goes into the attempt to successfully fulfill the role of the teacher [36]. According to Huberman (1993), teacher career motivation can be divided into three parts: active motivation, passive motivation, and material motivation [37]. Of these subcategories, this study will emphasize active motivation, a concept that not only includes the intrinsic value of teaching, but also those concerning values such as social utility, the desire to share knowledge and influence with others. This is important because TALIS uses teacher career motivation based on social utility value as a major variable.

For reference, the OECD report (2019) states that the altruism of teaching shows a resemblance to the altruism of public service and the desire to increase social value in terms of its motivation [38]. Similarly, Perry et. al., (2010) also defined the motivation for teaching as a type of public motivation to do good for others and the society at large [39]. He/she asserts that this motivation promotes the sustainable participation and concentration of teachers in the teaching scene.

2.5. Relationships between Factors

Teacher self-efficacy has important implications for education since it “represents the teacher’s belief in their ability to organize and execute necessary actions required to successfully carry out a specific educational task in a particular context” [40] (pp. 793–794). Teacher self-efficacy can change over time; it can be increased as well as decreased with the quantity and quality of teacher experience in educational institutions [41,42].

Additionally, teacher job satisfaction has been linked to feelings of teacher self-efficacy [43]. Teachers who view themselves as competent in their professions might have higher self-efficacy beliefs, which could reflect positively on their levels of job satisfaction [44]. As teachers find success in the classroom, their competency and self-efficacy grow. Studies about teacher self-efficacy also back up this concept, as veteran teachers tend to have higher levels of self-efficacy than novice teachers [45].

Studies implying the positive effects of teacher career motivation on teaching activities, commitment and the job satisfaction of the teacher have also been reported many times [46,47,48,49,50]. These considerations all support the idea that the career motivation of a teacher could also positively affect teachers’ efforts to promote the educational motivation of students, execute new teaching methods, and sustainable reform education. In addition, going on the results of a study of the relationship between the career motivation and job satisfaction levels of teachers based on social utility values [51], not only can it be assumed that the teacher social utility value derived career motivation of elementary school teachers positively affects teacher job satisfaction, but also that its effect is larger compared to other variables such as teacher self-efficacy or the quality of teacher-student relationships.

In Korea, teaching is widely regarded as a relatively stable profession with quite reasonable pay and benefits; however, with the complexity and burden of the job intensifying, the retirement age is also becoming lower and lower. Job satisfaction is indeed important to the teacher from an individual perspective, but given its great impact on students, it is also crucial to thoroughly examine the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and preparedness from the teacher education level.

In this study, the research assumptions were specifically established based on the analysis results of previous studies on the relationship between variables. First, teacher preparedness will affect teacher self-efficacy, teacher career motivation, and teacher job satisfaction. Second, teacher self-efficacy and teacher career motivation will affect teacher job satisfaction. The research model constructed around the research assumption is as follows (Figure 1).

3. Methods

3.1. Data Collection and Sampling

Participants in this study included Korean middle school teachers. Data points used in this study were obtained from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The latest international large-scale database which contains a nationally representative sample of teachers, TALIS 2018, was released for public use in June 2018. TALIS 2018 is an international survey that offered the opportunity for teachers and principals to provide input into education analysis and policy development. This data set was downloaded from https://www.oecd.org/education/talis/talis-2018-data.htm (accessed on 24 June 2022).

First, for this study, only full-time middle school teachers in Korea were selected from the 2018 TALIS data downloaded for this study. Second, teachers who answered all the questions of gender, age, educational background (highest level of formal education completed), and experiences as a teacher in total were selected. A total of 1266 teachers were used for the analysis of this study. The demographics of teachers in this study are displayed in

Table 1. Sample Demographics.

Characteristics		Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	29.7
	Female	70.3
Age	20 s	8.1
	30 s	27.6
	40 s	30.6
	50 s	31.9
	60 s	1.8
Highest formal education level	ISCED 2011 Level 6	62.7
	ISCED 2011 Level 7	35.9
	ISCED 2011 Level 7	1.4
Experiences as a teacher in total	10 years or less	28.0
	11–20 years or less	30.0
	21–30 years or less	31.3
	31 years or more	10.7
Experiences as a teacher at this school	1 year or less	25.4
	2 years or less	19.1
	3 years or less	17.4
	4 years or less	15.8
	5 years or more	22.3

.

3.2. Research Variables and Instruments

All items in the survey instrument employed a 4-point Likert scale without a midpoint because the middle category was often over-selected by respondents when their opinions were not firm, reducing the reliability of the instrument [52]. In this study, 27 items were used. For the validity of this research instrument, confirmatory factor analysis was performed as the first stage of the two-stage approach structural equation model analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha results demonstrated high reliability with α > 0.80.

Table 2. Variables and Measurement Instrument.

Variables	Items	Scale	Cronbach’α
Teacher preparedness (what extent did you feel prepared for each element in your teachings)	Content of some or all subject(s) I teach	1: Not at all 2: Some-what 3: Well 4: Very well	0.941
	Pedagogy of some or all subject(s) I teach
	General pedagogy
	Classroom practice in some or all subject(s) I teach
	Teaching in a mixed ability setting
	Teaching in a multicultural or multilingual setting
	Teaching cross-curricular skills
	Use of ICT
	Student behavior and classroom management
	Monitoring students’ development and learning
Teacher job satisfaction (how you generally feel about your jobs)	The advantages of being a teacher clearly outweigh the disadvantages	1: Strongly disagree 2: Disagree 3: Agree 4: Strongly agree	0.863
	If I could decide again, I would still choose to work as a teacher
	I regret that I decided to become a teacher *
	I wonder whether it would have been better to choose another profession *
	I think that the teaching profession is valued in society
	All in all, I am satisfied with my job
Teacher self-efficacy (what extent can you do the followings)	Get students to believe they can do well in school work	1: Not at all 2: To some extent 3: Quite a bit 4: A lot	0.900
	Help students value learning
	Motivate students who show low interest in school work
	Make my expectations about student behavior clear
	Help students think critically
	Provide an alternative explanation, for example when students are confused
	Vary instructional strategies in my classroom
	Support student learning through the use of digital technology
Teacher career motivation (How important were the following for you to become a teachers)	Teaching allowed me to influence the development of children and young people	1: Not at all 2: low importance 3: moderate 4: high	0.846
	Teaching allowed me to benefit the socially disadvantaged
	Teaching allowed me to contribute to society

Note. * was reverse-coded in the analysis.

presents variables, measurement items, scales, and the Cronbach’s α value for this study.

3.3. Methods

The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for Windows and AMOS 21.0, according to the following method. First, descriptive statistics and reliability analyses were performed on the demographic characteristics of the subjects to check the normality, reliability, and multicollinearity of the measurement variables. Second, after identifying a correlation, confirmatory factor analysis was performed according to the two-step approach proposed by Anderson and Gerbbing (1988) to estimate the validity of the structural equation model [53]. Third, bootstrapping was performed to verify the mediating effects of the final model, and phantom variables were used to verify the statistical significance of the individually mediated effects. Since the accuracy of bootstrapping increases with the number of estimates, the number of estimates was set to 10,000.

The fitness of the structural equation model was verified using the maximum likelihood method. χ², RMSEA was used for the absolute fit index; TLI and CFI were used for the incremental fit index. The acceptability of the model was evaluated based on the suggested cut-off values of 0.90 or higher for CFI and TLI [54,55], and 0.08 or lower for RMSEA [56].

4. Results

4.1. Descriptive Statistical Analysis

The skewness and kurtosis values of each variable were found to confirm the normality of the data, and the absolute values of both skewness and kurtosis of all variables were less than 3 and 8 respectively (

Table 3. Descriptive statistics.

Variables	Items	M	SD	Skewness	Kurtosis
Teacher preparedness	TP1	20.97	0.793	−0.231	−0.743
	TP2	20.92	0.808	−0.187	−0.747
	TP3	20.80	0.787	−0.012	−0.724
	TP4	20.90	0.802	−0.185	−0.698
	TP5	20.48	0.926	0.029	−0.845
	TP6	10.87	0.925	0.761	−0.417
	TP7	20.50	0.937	0.006	−0.880
	TP8	20.49	0.954	0.029	−0.928
	TP9	20.64	0.962	−0.178	−0.921
	TP10	20.56	0.934	−0.076	−0.865
Teacher job satisfaction	JS1	30.05	0.670	−0.494	0.667
	JS2	20.75	0.866	−0.253	−0.596
	JS3	30.06	0.770	−0.579	0.069
	JS4	20.71	0.850	−0.049	−0.730
	JS5	20.72	0.859	−0.266	−0.546
	JS6	30.07	0.639	−0.519	10.065
Teacher self-efficacy	SE1	30.22	0.653	−0.365	−0.276
	SE2	30.21	0.670	−0.433	−0.140
	SE3	20.82	0.758	−0.016	−0.637
	SE4	30.03	0.691	−0.230	−0.323
	SE5	20.96	0.709	−0.161	−0.446
	SE6	30.25	0.630	−0.402	0.077
	SE7	30.09	0.685	−0.220	−0.515
	SE8	20.94	0.779	−0.147	−0.775
Teacher’s career motivation	CM1	30.32	0.694	−0.718	0.051
	CM2	20.95	0.856	−0.436	−0.506
	CM3	30.11	0.800	−0.594	−0.216

). This satisfied the conditions of normal distribution [57]. To this end, the present study used Maximum Likelihood (ML) as the parameter estimation method and the bootstrapping approach for both CFA and SEM.

4.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling

Twenty-seven items were retained for model development using confirmatory factor analysis (

Table 4. Confirmatory factor analysis.

Measured Variable		Latent Variable	B	β	S.E.	C.R.	AVE	CR
TP10	←	TP	10.000	0.849			0.612	0.859
TP9	←	TP	0.959	0.790	0.022	440.570 ***
TP8	←	TP	0.859	0.714	0.030	290.110 ***
TP7	←	TP	0.958	0.811	0.027	350.304 ***
TP6	←	TP	0.675	0.578	0.031	220.011 ***
TP5	←	TP	0.971	0.831	0.026	360.820 ***
TP4	←	TP	0.871	0.860	0.022	380.915 ***
TP3	←	TP	0.752	0.757	0.024	310.614 ***
TP2	←	TP	0.842	0.826	0.023	360.462 ***
TP1	←	TP	0.763	0.762	0.024	320.073 ***
JS4	←	JS	10.000	0.695			0.518	0.792
JS6	←	JS	0.859	0.794	0.035	240.517 ***
JS5	←	JS	0.812	0.559	0.046	170.618 ***
JS2	←	JS	10.220	0.833	0.050	240.329 ***
JS1	←	JS	0.862	0.760	0.038	220.407 ***
JS3	←	JS	0.837	0.642	0.031	270.116 ***
SE1	←	SE	10.000	0.703			0.525	0.755
SE2	←	SE	10.099	0.752	0.030	360.074 ***
SE3	←	SE	10.257	0.761	0.051	240.723 ***
SE4	←	SE	0.970	0.572	0.052	180.715 ***
SE5	←	SE	10.243	0.826	0.047	260.411 ***
SE6	←	SE	10.143	0.740	0.048	230.768 ***
SE7	←	SE	0.975	0.710	0.042	230.211 ***
SE8	←	SE	10.055	0.707	0.046	230.106 ***
CM3	←	CM	10.000	0.869			0.655	0.794
CM2	←	CM	0.995	0.809	0.033	290.905 ***
CM1	←	CM	0.744	0.745	0.027	270.823 ***

*** p < 0.001, Abbreviations: TP, Teacher preparedness; JS, Teacher job satisfaction; SE, Teacher self-efficacy; CM, Teacher’s career motivation.

). All factor models were tested with the structural equation modeling AMOS 21.0. The Chi-square 1680.357, degrees of freedom 306, NFI 0.927, CFI 0.940, TLI 0.931 and RMSEA 0.060. Based on these indices, the conceptual model exhibited a good fit for the data. Factor loadings were above 0.50 for all sub-factors and were statistically significant. The average variance extracted (AVE) ranged from 0.518 to 0.655 and thus met the standard (>0.50), and the construct reliability (CR) ranged from 0.755 to 0.859 and thus met the standard (>0.70), securing convergent validity.

Table 5. Structural equation model analysis.

Path			B	β	S0.E0.	C0.R0.	p
teacher self-efficacy	←	teacher preparedness	0.256	0.441	0.018	130.826	***
teacher career motivation	←	teacher preparedness	0.333	0.381	0.027	120.380	***
teacher job satisfaction	←	teacher preparedness	0.001	0.002	0.028	0.044	0.965
teacher job satisfaction	←	teacher self-efficacy	0.179	0.140	0.046	30.905	***
teacher job satisfaction	←	teacher career motivation	0.185	0.219	0.030	60.140	***

*** p < 0.001.

displays the results of the structural equation model analysis performed to examine the pathways among teacher preparedness, job satisfaction, self-efficacy and a teacher’s career motivation. The fit of the structural equation model was fairly robust (Chi-square 1732.158, degrees of freedom 307, NFI 0.925, CFI 0.937, TLI 0.928 and RMSEA 0.059).

The structural equation model analysis result was as follows (Figure 2): First, teacher preparedness was significantly and positively affected by teachers’ self-efficacy and career motivation levels. But teacher preparedness was not significantly affected by the teachers’ job satisfaction. Therefore, teacher preparedness had no statistically significant direct effect on job satisfaction, only an indirect effect. On the other hand, teachers’ self-efficacy and career motivation were significantly and positively connected with teachers’ job satisfaction levels.

4.3. Mediating Effect Using Phantom Models

In models that involve mediation effects, AMOS 21 provides bootstrap estimates, SE, and confidence intervals only for the total indirect effects (the sum of all specific indirect effects) [58]. Therefore, the phantom model approach, which provides the above information for specific indirect effects, was also employed [59,60]. The phantom model (Figure 3) enables the researcher to conduct robust tests of specific mediation hypotheses based on bootstrap procedures within a conventional covariance structure framework [61]. We created the phantom model, consisting of two phantom variables (P1, P2) and two direct paths. Then, equality constraints, denoted as a and b for the paths from teacher preparedness to teacher self-efficacy as well as from teacher self-efficacy to teacher job satisfaction are imposed between path coefficients. In the same way, p3 and p4 were created, and c and d were inserted into the coefficients.

The results of mediating effects of the two personal factors, teacher self-efficacy, and career motivation, on the relationships between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction are presented in

Table 6. Results of the mediation model using the phantom model approach.

Effect	Estimate	SE	95% Confidence Interval	p	Bootstrap
					M	SD
teacher self-efficacy ← Teacher preparedness	0.256	0.018	(0.215, 0.293)	0.009	0.255	0.001
Teacher career motivation ← Teacher preparedness	0.333	0.027	(0.277, 0.388)	0.009	0.333	0.002

. Of the possible paths, the following were found to be statistically significant:

First, teacher self-efficacy had significantly and positively mediating effects on teacher preparedness (indirect effect: 0.256, p < 0.01). Second, teacher career motivation had significantly and positively mediating effects on teacher preparedness (indirect effect: 0.333, p < 0.01). In conclusion, teacher self-efficacy and teacher career motivation had statistically significant mediating roles between teacher preparedness and teacher job satisfaction. Based on the estimate of mediating effects, it was found that teacher career motivation had a greater positive effect than teacher self-efficacy. The results of the test for mediating effects are shown in Table 6.

5. Discussion and Suggestion

This study utilizes the 2018 TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey) conducted by the OECD to analyze the effect of teacher preparedness in Korean teachers on their levels of job satisfaction and the meditation effects of teacher self-efficacy and career motivation within that relationship. The main results are as follows.

First, the preparedness of teachers did not have a statistically significant direct effect on teacher job satisfaction. The variables that did have a statistically significant effect were teacher self-efficacy and career motivation, which both affected teacher job satisfaction positively. This shows that teachers with high self-efficacy and career motivation had a higher and more sustainable level of job satisfaction. The positive impact of teacher self-efficacy and motivation on job satisfaction is widely supported in the literature [26,32,41]. Meanwhile, teacher preparedness was revealed to have a statistically significant positive effect on teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. This means that teachers who were well prepared at the teacher education level were able to have a higher level of self-efficacy and career motivation. Prior studies also portrayed a similar result [62].

Second, the statistically significant influence relationship is as follows. teacher preparedness had a bigger effect on teacher career motivation than that on self-efficacy. At the same time, teacher self-efficacy and career motivation had a positive effect on teacher job satisfaction, with the latter outweighing the former in terms of impact. Thus, it can be concluded that the importance of teacher career motivation is larger in the relationship between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction.

The TALIS 2018 revised and expanded on the topic of teacher motivation. The topic itself, for the most part, has been joined with career choice and job satisfaction [63]. This shows that the OECD is also showing attention to teacher career motivation. A similar conclusion had already been gained from a prior study using the TALIS of OECD countries. Thus, teacher motivations change throughout a teacher’s career, which relates to initial teacher preparation, self-efficacy, and other teacher characteristics [64]. The findings regarding motivations in particular revealed that teachers scored high on social utility value as an important motivation to become a teacher [63,64].

Third, a mediation effect analysis using phantom variables was conducted to take a closer look into the mediation effects of teacher self-efficacy and career motivation in the relationship between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction. According to the result, the mediation effects of teacher career motivation outweighed that of teacher self-efficacy.

Based on the results above, we wish to make the following suggestions concerning the sustainable enhancement of teacher preparedness, self-efficacy, career motivation, and job satisfaction in the teacher education course.

The first finding of this study shows that the variables directly affecting teacher job satisfaction levels were efficacy and career motives. Therefore, we need to actively seek out the means for boosting teacher self-efficacy and career motivation. These measures should not only be sought from the level of current teachers, but also at the student-teacher level. For example, the system needs to be reorganized by further valuing the Teaching Personality and Aptitude Test and strengthening in-depth interviews when selecting student teachers for entrants with a greater motivation towards the teaching profession in preference to those with just higher grades. In addition, sustainable teacher education programs also need to be redesigned by actively opening programs connected to the actual teaching scene, for higher understanding and more specific realizations regarding the importance of duty in the teaching profession.

Second, the first and second finding of this study reveals that teacher efficacy is an important factor in improving teacher job satisfaction. A positive sense of teacher self-efficacy can be formed and further enhanced when teaching competency is sufficiently guaranteed through teaching experiences such as simulated instruction activities and peer supervision. In this manner, it is exceedingly important that the opportunity of simulated instruction be sufficiently provided for student teachers who naturally lack first-hand teaching experience [65]. Especially when it comes to teacher education courses in Korea, it is necessary that teacher self-efficacy be promoted and teacher motivation is improved by means of expanding the sustainable opportunities for simulated instructions and peer supervision activities.

Third, this study shows that teachers who were well prepared at the teacher education level showed high self-efficacy and career motivation. Therefore, the target level of teacher education needs to be set higher than the current teacher education course. The profession of teaching is open to everyone, but that does not mean that anyone could successfully fulfill the job. The profession can only be successfully fulfilled when the practical capability gained by teacher education training is imposed on top of the internalization of the required personality, creativity, sociality, and ethics. The teacher should be more than a mere messenger of knowledge; the teacher should be able to supervise and guide teaching activities of various levels as a facilitator of promoting students’ learning and as a fully capable research mentor [66]. These capabilities are prepared in the teacher preparation institution and should be strengthened with in-service education systems after employment. From this view, the merely four-week teaching practicum in Korea needs to be revamped both in quantity and quality. At least in quantity, a system improvement should be devised by examining the pros and cons of the German teacher practicum system, which generally takes 1 to 1.5 years [67].

Fourth, the second and third findings imply that we need to pay more attention to the role and importance of teacher career motivation. Teacher career motivation is connected with professional values and the identity of teachers. Therefore, systematic teaching profession counseling should probably be carried out in the initial teacher education stage. Though the creation of teacher identity is indeed a core objective of teacher training which should be fulfilled through the curriculum, it is also a matter that should be supplemented and updated through non-subject educational programs or non-curriculum activities. Additionally, it should be approached carefully through individualized guidance and counseling. The reason for this is that though teacher identity may be identified and analyzed as a sort of collective identity depending on the degree of academic interest, the identity of the teacher in the actual classroom is still created, performed, and functioned at the individual level. Therefore, it is exceedingly important that a sophisticated system be established for helping the creation and development of the teacher’s motivation and identity as an individual, starting from the teacher training process.

6. Conclusions

This study explored the relationship between teacher preparedness and job satisfaction by utilizing data from the OECD 2018 TALIS and it also analyzed the mediating effect of teacher self-efficacy and motivation. According to this study, preparedness affects the job satisfaction of teachers, and teacher self-efficacy and motivation show an important mediating effect in that process. Therefore, to enhance the sustainable job satisfaction of teachers, specific measures for enhancing the teacher preparedness, self-efficacy and motivation should be sought out. Additionally, these efforts and institutional complements should not only be targeted toward current teachers but should be actively planned and implemented from the teacher training level.

In the case of Korea, a Development Plan for Elementary and Middle School Teacher Training Systems (Ministry of Education, 2021) has been announced, and further discussions concerning the matter are expected to accelerate in the future [68]. This plan aims the support student growth, convergence classes, class innovations for future competency development, curriculum restructuring, guaranteeing basic academic ability, counseling, and support for students in crisis, communication and cooperation, and school innovation. Yet, teachers are still and always will be the key to the realization of these goals. These teachers should be nurtured into those sufficiently prepared and motivated with high self-efficacy through the sustainable teacher training process. All in all, a more efficient direction and better measures need to be introduced through comparative studies of countries with similar teacher training systems as Korea.

Education is the foundation of a society and the key to a sustainable future. And that education starts with teacher education. Cultivating prepared teachers, teachers with high self-efficacy, motivated teachers, and teachers with high self-satisfaction is the essential and surest way not only for the well-being of teachers but also for a sustainable society. Through this study, we reconfirmed the meaning of teacher education by examining the interface between a sustainable society and teacher education and suggested the direction of teacher education for a sustainable common future.