Employment practices and employers'attitudes towards elderly teachers in private sector schools in Sri Lanka
| dc.contributor.advisor | Suchitra Punyaratabandhu | th |
| dc.contributor.author | Madhuwanthi, Lokuhetti Arachchige Pavithra | th |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-05-23T01:16:50Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-05-23T01:16:50Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016 | th |
| dc.date.issuedBE | 2559 | th |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D. (Development Administration))--National Institute of Development Administration, 2016 | th |
| dc.description.abstract | The main objectives of the dissertation were to identify the reasons for employing elderly teachers (ETs) in the private sector schools in Sri Lanka, current employment practices applied for the ETs, employers’ attitudes towards the ETs, and the factors affecting such attitudes among the employers. The study used semistructured in-depth interviews to investigate the reasons for employing the ETs and current employment practices applied with the ETs. Ten schools were selected for studying current employment practices under the themes of recruitment and selection, employment terms and conditions, training and development, performance evaluation and promotion, and retirement. An examination of the employers’ attitudes and the factors affecting those attitudes was surveyed with a self-administered questionnaire given to 98 employers in the private sector schools in Sri Lanka. The interview data revealed that employers’ first impressions of the employment of ETs in the private sector schools were almost all positive towards the ETs. It was found that the employers in the private sector schools in Sri Lanka employed ETs due to the shortfall of qualified teachers that could teach in the English medium, because of the competency of ETs, their expert contribution as administrators, mentors, and disciplinarians, and because ETs bring age diversity to the schools and because of financial constraints and reputational matters among some of the new and small schools. A comparison of the number of ETs employed in the private sector schools indicated that more opportunities were available for ETs in the international schools (ISs) than in the unaided private schools (UPSs) in Sri Lanka. However, it was indicated that in terms of the size of the school, small- and medium-size schools had favourable employment practices towards ETs compared to large schools. Though the employers preferred the employment of ETs, current employment practices towards the ETs were age discriminatory to a great extent. Applying age restrictions in recruitment, determining employment terms and conditions, training and development opportunities, salary increments and promotions showed that employment practices were often coupled with age discrimination. Yet, there were some instances where schools indicated age-friendly approaches, for examples, the inclusion of stimulating clauses for retired teachers in vacancy advertisements, providing full-time employment for ETs, adopting a late official retirement age, and not implementing early retirement schemes for teachers. Amongst the two types of schools (UPSs and ISs), relatively fewer age discriminatory practices could be observed in the ISs in Sri Lanka. This may have been because the fewer government regulations for ISs allowed them make their employment decisions autonomously according to the requirements of the schools. Further, in terms of size of the school, small- and medium-size schools adopted more age-friendly practices compared with larger schools. Since small- and medium-size schools may be particularly affected by the teacher shortage and difficulties regarding the retention of teachers, may have inclined them to respond quite favourably towards ETs. Based on the attitudinal survey data, a factor analysis performed on the 19 attitudinal variables categorized those variables into three dimensions and three scales were constructed namely; effectiveness, competence, and adaptability. A regression analysis was performed in order to identify the factors affecting the employers’ attitudes towards the ETs. The results revealed that the employers’ overall attitudes towards the ETs were significantly and positively affected by the age of the employer, the employers’ frequent contact with the ETs, and type of school being an international school. However, the gender of the employer and the size of the school did not have any significant effect on the employers’ attitudes towards ETs. Comparing the two types of schools considered in the study, it can be concluded that the ISs in Sri Lanka are less age discriminatory than the UPSs in terms of the employers’ attitudes towards ETs and adopting employment practices towards ETs. Based on those findings and implications, necessary recommendations were made. | th |
| dc.format.extent | 257 leaves | th |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | th |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.14457/NIDA.the.2016.182 | |
| dc.identifier.other | b192552 | th |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://repository.nida.ac.th/handle/662723737/6467 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | th |
| dc.publisher | National Institute of Development Administration | th |
| dc.rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. | th |
| dc.subject.other | Teachers -- Sri Lanka | th |
| dc.subject.other | Attitude (Psychology) | th |
| dc.title | Employment practices and employers'attitudes towards elderly teachers in private sector schools in Sri Lanka | th |
| dc.type | text--thesis--doctoral thesis | th |
| mods.genre | Dissertation | th |
| mods.physicalLocation | National Institute of Development Administration. Library and Information Center | th |
| thesis.degree.department | Graduate School of Public Administration | th |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Development Administration | th |
| thesis.degree.grantor | National Institute of Development Administration | th |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | th |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy | th |