Teacher Characteristics and Readiness towards Organizational Change in Public Elementary Schools

This study examined the relationship between teacher characteristics and readiness towards organizational change among public elementary school teachers in Mati Central District, Division of the City of Mati. A quantitative descriptive-correlational design was used with 125 full-time elementary teachers selected from a population of 210 through simple random sampling. Data were collected through adapted standardized survey questionnaires measuring teacher-student interaction characteristics, characteristics related to the teaching profession, humanistic and justice characteristics, and readiness towards organizational change across cynicism, fear and uncertainty, and acceptance of change. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used. Results showed that teacher characteristics were rated very high overall (M = 4.27, SD = 0.61), with humanistic and justice characteristics obtaining the highest domain mean (M = 4.37, SD = 0.65). Readiness towards organizational change was moderate overall (M = 3.23, SD = 0.85), although acceptance of change was very high (M = 4.33, SD = 0.78). Teacher characteristics had a strong positive correlation with readiness towards organizational change (r = .71, R2 = .50, p = .000). Regression analysis showed that the three teacher-characteristic domains significantly predicted readiness, with humanistic and justice characteristics showing the strongest standardized effect. The results highlight the relevance of relational, professional, and ethical teacher qualities in school change contexts.