Abstract:

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the physical conditions of school buildings and organizational commitment according to the perceptions of teachers in public primary schools. The research population consists of 2450 teachers from 92 primary schools in the central district of Diyarbakır/Turkey in the academic year of 2017-2018. The data collection instrument was applied to randomly selected 534 teachers from 27 schools. “School Buildings Scale" developed by Çağlayan and Yılmaz (2011) and “Organizational Commitment Scale" developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993), and adapted into Turkish by Dağlı, Elçiçek and Han (2017) were used in this study. Some important findings of the study are listed below: According to teachers' perceptions, the highest item that is associated with the school buildings was found in the dimension of “General view (M=3,58; Quite adequate), the item with the lowest level was found in the dimension of “Fields reserved for students” (M=2,44; insufficient). The mean of the whole scale was found as (M=2.99) “Partially adequate”. It was determined that the highest mean of teachers' perceptions about organizational commitment (M=3.50; Agree) was in “affective commitment” dimension and the lowest mean (M=2,94; Undecided) in the dimension of “normative commitment”. Teachers participated in the total mean of the organizational commitment scale at the level of (M=3.19; Undecided). Generally, it was found that there was a moderate and positive relationship between the school building scale and organizational commitment scale (r=,561, p <0.01). This shows that, as the physical conditions of the school buildings are improved, the organizational commitment of the teachers is increased.

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