A Factor Analysis of School Culture Promoting Teachers’ Lifelong Learning under the Satun Primary Educational Service Area Office

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to analyze, using exploratory factor analysis, the school culture factors promoting teachers’ lifelong learning under the Satun Primary Educational Service Area Office, and 2) to investigate the level of this school culture. The sample consisted of 331 teachers, determined as an acceptable size based on the criteria of Hair et al., and obtained through quota sampling. The research instrument was a 5-level rating scale questionnaire with an overall Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of .968. Statistics used for data analysis included Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), mean, and standard deviation. The research findings revealed that: 1) The school culture factors promoting teachers’ lifelong learning comprised 5 main factors with 36 variables, accounting for 69.359% of the total cumulative variance. These factors included: (1) transmitting shared professional values by honoring successful role models, (2) developing staff potential in innovation to drive educational quality, (3) building a professional learning community within a collegial atmosphere, (4) decentralizing administration to provide opportunities for participatory decision-making, and (5) engaging in self-directed learning aligned with school goals. 2) The level of school culture promoting teachers’ lifelong learning, both overall and for each individual factor, was at a high level. The factor with the highest mean was self-directed learning aligned with school goals, whereas the factor with the lowest mean was developing staff potential in innovation to drive educational quality.