“The Grass Is Grey on Both Sides”: Rural and Urban Teacher Job Satisfaction in Henan Province, China

This paper utilizes a comparative case study approach to explore the teacher job satisfaction (TJS) status of rural and urban teachers and the underlying factors that influence their TJS in central China by utilizing semi-structured interviews. Our participants include 30 rural and 14 urban public primary school teachers. We found that both rural and urban teachers had low levels of TJS. The main factors related to teachers’ job satisfaction were low salaries, heavy workload, low social respect, and frustration with the professional ranking system. Specific to rural teachers, the overburden of non-teaching-related duties, lack of parental support, and the low suzhi (quality) of students and parents had a significant impact on rural teachers’ job satisfaction. Moreover, rural and urban teachers also had misconceptions about each other’s positions, both believing that the “other side” had a better job. Implications for relevant education policy in China and beyond will be discussed.