Abstract
M.Ed. (Education)
The educational psychology profession in South Africa is experiencing challenges regarding the efficacy of its Scope of Practice and its less than harmonious relationship with medical aid schemes. In the South African context, the Board of Psychology, which falls under the Health Professions Council of South Africa, might have used a more robust approach in supporting EPs and in the delineation of their Scope of Practice. Furthermore, the recognition of the value of Educational Psychologists (EPs) inside and outside the profession is under scrutiny at present, creating further pressure to revisit the professional identity of EPs. In light of this situation, this research report aimed to explore the levels of job satisfaction of recently graduated EPs in Gauteng, South Africa.
A sequential, exploratory mixed-methods design was followed for the study. The choice of this design is that it allowed for the development of an appropriate and comprehensive survey on factors relating to job satisfaction. The qualitative phase of this study constituted an exploration of the participants’ pertaining to the relevance and expression of the questions contained in the job satisfaction survey. This was achieved by purposeful sampling: three semi-structured interviews of which two were conducted face-to-face and one via e-mail. The qualitative analysis involved a deductive approach using transcriptions of interviews and identifying the feedback pertaining to the respondents’ assessment of the survey questions. The quantitative phase involved the major portion of the data-collection method. Data comprised of a job satisfaction survey, administered via the online SurveyMonkey software tool. Consequently, the data was gathered and generated via the same software tool. In total, fifteen respondents with five or less years work experience completed the survey.
Limitations to this study include the select number of EPs interviewed; the limited demographic profile of respondents and participants, namely only urban females; and the defined geographic location, as the study was only conducted in Gauteng. The data collection procedure, namely the e-mailed survey, was another limitation of the study. E-mail surveys tend to yield low return rates...