Chapter 3: Methods
3.5 Study Sample
Teddlie and Tashakkori (2009) noted that “sampling involves selecting units of analysis (e.g., people, groups, artifacts, settings) in a manner that maximizes the researcher’s ability to answer research questions set forth in a study” (p. 169).
Sampling techniques involve the selection of units or cases for a research study. In this research, the units of analysis are ADEK government teachers in Al Ain city in the UAE selected through stratified sampling.
Proportional stratified sampling is a process in which certain subgroups or strata are selected for the sample in the same proportion as they exist in the population (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). The advantage of this sampling is that it increases the likelihood of representativeness that ensures key characteristics of individuals in the population are included in the same proportions in the sample (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009).
Accounting for the confidence level of 99% and a margin of error of plus or minus of five percent, the net target population (survey sample) for a population of 6813 would be 605 respondents (Qualtrics Research Platform, 2019). For the proportional stratified random sampling, the targeted number of teachers in KGs is 62, 128 in Cycle 1, 92 in Cycle 2, 74 in Cycle 3 and 256 in common cycles schools. For convenience, the sample was selected from one-third of total schools in the Al Ain district, which consists of 40 schools. Taking this into consideration, the teachers were selected from eight schools from the assigned category in each of the five categories (KG, Cycle 1, 2, 3 and common cycles schools) (Table 9).
Table 9: Study Sample (Percentages and Numbers of Teachers From Each Cycle)
These 40 schools were chosen for their geographical location/proximity. The purpose of choosing the 40 schools with different cycles and different capacities is to investigate the effect that workload has on commitment of teachers (C). The mixed- gender primary schools were chosen to meet ADEK’s initiative of attaining all mixed- gender primary schools. In addition, all of the schools were chosen that had been functioning for a minimum of two academic years to be compatible with the expectations for the surveys.
From the 40 schools, eight schools were from Kindergarten (KG) category with all female teachers. The eight schools from Cycle 1 consisted of four with all-female teacher schools, and four were mixed-gender teacher schools, as there were no primary schools with all-male teachers in the Al Ain district for the academic year 2017-2018.
For the eight schools from Cycle 2, Cycle 3, and common cycles schools, there were four all-female teacher schools and four all-male teacher schools. Schools were
The cycle
Total of staff number
Percentage of staff (total %)
The recommended
sample size
Number of schools
Total actual responses
Females Males
KG 714 10 62 8 93 0
Cycle1 1415 21 128 8 122 32
Cycle2 1004 15 92 8 71 74
Cycle3 844 12 74 8 62 58
Common cycle 2836 42 256 8 101 124
Al Ain district total 6813 100 612 40 737
clustered based on their cycles, and then by gender, and finally a certain number of teachers in each school were asked to complete the survey to reach the sample size of 605 and the proportional size of each cluster in the sample.
The questionnaire was subdivided into two sections: the first section captured sociodemographic information of the participants; the second summarized their personal opinion on commitment of teachers.
At the individual level, the demographic variables were measured from the respondents’ background in terms of sex, age group, nationality, highest academic qualification attained, number of years of teaching experience in UAE, school cycle in which they teach, teaching subjects, number of years they spent in the school they teach in now, number of students they teach this year, their teaching load, their opinion on how they see their non-teaching duties this year, marital status and number of children they have.
Demographic data was collected for this research in several areas. The respondents’ backgrounds were analyzed using descriptive statistics which involved frequency and percentage. Table 10 reveals the analysis of the demographic data.
Table 10: Respondents’ Demographic Information
Demographic data item Frequency Percent
Sex Male 288 39.1
Female 449 60.9
Age 20-30 60 8.1
31-40 308 41.8
41-50 263 35.7
50 and above 106 14.4
Nationality UAE 260 35.3
Arab 267 36.2
Other 210 28.5
Highest Degree Diploma 12 1.6
Bachelor 574 77.9
Master’s 139 18.9
Doctorate 12 1.6
Table 10: Respondents’ Demographic Information (continued)
Demographic data item Frequency Percent
Demographic data item
Teaching Experience Less than a year 34 4.6
1-5 years 165 22.3
6-10 years 124 16.8
11-15 years 153 20.8
over 15 years 261 35.4
School Cycle KG 93 12.6
Cycle 1 154 20.9
Cycle 2 142 19.3
Cycle 3 120 16.3
Common 228 30.9
Teaching Subject English 92 12.5
Chemistry 10 1.4
IT 20 2.7
Arabic 119 16.1
Physics 19 2.6
Islamic 50 6.8
Social Studies 43 5.8
Business 6 0.8
PE 20 2.7
Math 78 10.6
Science 47 6.4
Biology 14 1.9
Special Needs 12 1.6
Moral Studies 9 1.2
EMT 83 11.3
AMT 50 6.8
Music 8 1.1
More than one subject 4 0.5
ART 7 0.9
Arabic + Islamic 46 6.2
Number of years in the same school
Less than a year 99 13.4
1-2 119 16.1
3-5 221 30
6-9 158 21.4
10 and over 140 19
Number of students the participant teaches
Less than 30 175 23.7
31-60 158 21.4
61-90 142 19.3
91-120 103 14
over 120 159 21.6
Teaching load 12 lessons or less 54 7.3
13-18 179 24.3
19-24 348 47.2
25-30 132 17.9
over 30 24 3.3
How do participants feel about their non-teaching duties?
1 manageable 85 11.5
2 54 7.3
3 60 8.1
4 57 7.7
5 147 19.9
6 78 10.6
7 73 9.9
8 96 13
Table 10: Respondents’ Demographic Information (continued)
Demographic data item Frequency Percent
Demographic data item How do participants feel about
their non-teaching duties
9 42 5.7
10 extremely
exhausting 45 6.1
Marital status Married 619 84
Single 78 10.6
Divorced 15 2
Widow 25 3.4
Number of children 0 118 15.9
1 54 7.3
2 119 16.1
more than 2 449 60.7
Note. IT = Information Technology, PE = Physical Education, EMT =English Medium Teacher, and AMT =Arabic Medium Teacher
Of all the teachers who answered the questionnaires, 60.9% of the participants were females, and 39.1% of them were males. The age ranges of the sample spanned 20 years old to 50 years of age and over. Specific age-range percentages are as follows, ages 20-30 years old comprised 8.1%, showing the lowest category based on the percentage; ages 31-40 comprised 41.8%, showing the highest category based on its availability percentage. Ages 41-50 were 35.7%, and over the age of 50 were 14.4%.
Nearly one-third of participants were from each category of the various nationalities: 35.3% of the participants were UAE nationals; 36.2% of the participants were classified as Arab nationalities; while the remaining 28.5% were from other nationalities. These percentages display a higher percentage of participants of Arab nationalities, compared to UAE nationals and participants of other nationalities.
When assessing the educational level of respondents, those respondents holding diploma degrees comprised 1.6%, respondents holding bachelor’s degrees consisted of 77.9%, respondents holding master’s degree consisted of 18.9%, while those who earned a doctoral degree made up about 1.6%. The number of respondents holding a diploma was approximately equal to participants holding a doctorate (1.6%), in terms of their representation in the research sample.
With respect to teaching experience, less than 5% of participants had less than one year of teaching experience (4.6%), 22.4% of participants had between one and five years of experience, 16.8% of participants had between six and 10 years of experience, and 20.8% of participants had between 11 and 15 years of experience. The highest teaching experience category consisted of participants who had been teaching for over 15 years (35.4%).
As for the school cycles, the study was conducted with participants consisting of 12.6% that teach in KGs, 20.9% that teach in Cycle 1, 19.3% that teach in Cycle 2, 16.3% that teach in Cycle 3 and 30.9% that teach in the common cycle.
While Arabic and English represented the highest proportion of teaching subjects by the participants with 16.19% and 12.5% respectively, business and art represented the lowest proportions of teaching subjects by the participants which were represented as 0.8% and 0.9% respectively.
Concerning teaching experience, 13.4% of participants had less than one year of teaching experience, 16.1% of participants had between one to two years of teaching experience, 30% of participants had between three to five years of teaching experience, 21.4% of participants had between six to nine years of teaching experience, 19% of participants had 10 years and over of teaching experience.
With respect to the number of students that each of the participants teaches, three categories measured percentages that were approximately 20%. These categories are between 31 and 60 students, between 61 to 50 students and over 120 students. The highest category was less than 30 students, with 23.7%, and the lowest category was between 91 and 120 students, which comprised 14%.
Concerning teaching load, the percentage of participants who got 12 lessons or less weekly (7.3%) is nearly double the percentage of participants who got over 30 lessons weekly (3.3%).
Regarding the question of how do participants feel about their non-teaching duties, approximately one-fifth of the participants (19.9%) expressed a middle score (5) in the number line between 1 to 10. While 18.8% of participants had chosen a score of 1 and 2 for manageable teaching duties, 11.8% of participants had chosen a score of 9 and 10 for extremely exhausting teaching duties. Mean (M) for this question is equal to 5.33. However, the percentage of participants indicating manageable non- teaching duties (scoring from 1 to 5) are higher in number (54.5%) compared to participants indicating extremely exhausting non-teaching duties (scoring from 6 to 10) by 9.2%.
With respect to marital status, the percentage of married participants was 84%
and is well beyond the percentages of other categories. Singles represented 10.6%, while divorced and widowed participants shared similar percentages with 2% and 3.4% correspondingly.
Participants with more than two children were represented in the sample with 60.7%. Similar percentages of participants with no children or two children were presented in the sample with about 16%. Participants with one child are represented as 7.3% of the sample.