Exploring Factors Encouraging Teachers’ Pursuit of Postgraduate Education and Barriers that Impeded Their Postgraduate Education

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the factors that encourage teachers who currently continued with a postgraduate education with Master’s program to pursue postgraduate education and barriers they faced in undertaking postgraduate education. Participants consisted of 295 teachers (170 women and 125 men) enrolled in a Master’s level program in any branch of science in the basic field of educational sciences at a state university. Data were collected through the use of a-5-Likert type scale. A crosssectional research design, which is one of the types of screening research, was used and descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of study data. The results yielded three findings: First, career development, academic autonomy, confidence in decision-making, critical thinking, and acquisition of knowledge and skills were found as factors influencing the teachers’ pursuit of postgraduate education, but career development and academic autonomy were the predominant reasons for pursuing postgraduate education. Second, there was strong agreement among the teachers that postgraduate education experiences did not increase their job satisfaction. Third, among the barriers to postgraduate education highlighted by teachers were the difficulty in finding a work-study-life balance whilst undertaking postgraduate education, stress when undertaking in postgraduate education while working, and the need for resources and support for postgraduate study to be successful, but stress and difficulty in work-life balance seem to the prominent barriers, that impeded the teachers’ postgraduate education. Findings indicate that postgraduate education seems by participants in this study not only as an effort to develop a future plan but also as a field of activity that could influence teachers’ work and social life.