Teachers' Work Day Averages 10.25 Hours
Study tracks how teachers spend their time
A new study out of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee concludes that
teaching is an occupation already involving long hours of work and cautions
policy-makers against initiatives that lengthen the school day.
In order to make an accurate estimate of the amount of work teachers
do, the study tracked how teachers spend their time. The research focused
on six areas of time use:
- contractual working time (as covered by collective bargaining agreements),
- the standard time diary measure of working time,
- time physically present at the work place,
- the amount of time work invades an individual’s time, or work
“invasiveness,”
- the amount of time spent on housework, and
- the total hours of housework and teaching-related activities.
The subjects of the research were a sample of 324 full-time elementary
school teachers spread across 46 public schools in four urban school districts
in the U.S., and 87% were women. Teachers were asked to complete a written
daily diary.
Researchers discovered that the average teacher in the sample was under
contract to work 6½ hours per day but spent 8¼ hours at school.
The time diary suggested that the working day including the work invasiveness
averaged around 10¼ hours per day.
“Work invaded these teachers’ lives for almost four hours beyond
that which is explicitly required,” the study concluded.
To measure other key pressures on a teacher’s life, the study added
that the typical teacher also spends nearly two hours a day on housework.
“Adding housework to the standard diary measure of working time yielded
an average total working day of just under 12 hours.”
For more information, contact Robert Drago at the UWM Economics Department,
P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee WI 53201-0413, or call (414) 229-6494 or e-mail
drago@uwm.edu.
Posted March 4, 1999