Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
3-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Brandi R. Ray
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Suzanne Weatherly
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Shaunna Waltemeyer
Abstract
This qualitative multicase study examined how school leaders and educators perceived the
influence of community engagement, particularly volunteerism, on campus culture and teacher
job satisfaction in K–5 schools in the North Texas region. Continuous teacher attrition and
weakening campus morale have resulted in increased attention to leadership strategies that
support retention. However, the role community engagement has in supporting educators has
been underexplored. The purpose of this study was to investigate how educators and
administrators experienced and interpreted community engagement efforts on their campus and
how those efforts shaped school culture and teacher job satisfaction. Guided by social capital
theory, the study utilized a qualitative multicase study design. The researcher collected data
through semistructured interviews with eight participants, including four tenured elementary
school principals and four tenured classroom teachers from four purposefully selected campuses
within a fast-growth school district in the North Texas region. Campuses were intentionally
selected to represent varying levels of volunteer engagement, determined by historical campus
volunteer hours and teacher retention provided by principal participants’ accounts. The
researcher analyzed interview recordings and transcripts using a systematic multicase analytic
approach using Yin’s (2018) design, which involves within-case analysis followed by cross-case
synthesis to identify patterns and differences across campuses. Findings revealed that educators
and leaders perceived community engagement as a positive influence on campus culture and
educator job satisfaction when it was intentionally structured, aligned with instructional
priorities, and supported by leadership. Specifically, engagement was found to contribute to
enhanced campus culture through increased trust, shared responsibility, and relational support. In
addition, participants also named instructional boundaries, inclusive practices, leadershipiv
support, and teacher capacity as critical factors contributing to whether engagement was viewed
as positively impacting teacher job satisfaction. The study concluded that community
engagement can act as a form of social capital to strengthen school culture and support educator
well-being when intentionally structured and implemented. Implications were identified for
leadership practice and recommendations for organizational practice and future research were
provided to focus on educator-centered outcomes of community engagement.
Keywords: community engagement, volunteerism, teacher job satisfaction, school
culture, social capital theory, elementary education
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Fojtasek, Hailee Jo, "The Influence of Community Engagement on Educator Job Satisfaction and School Culture in K–5 Schools: A Multicase Study" (2026). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 993.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/993
Included in
Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Elementary Education Commons
Comments
The barriers in the field of education continue to increase as school districts struggle to
navigate the complex nature of the modern educational landscape. Some of these barriers include
increased parental control, safety concerns, poor compensation, and deficient leadership.
However, the most common and impactful barrier of all is heightened stress levels (Frahm &
Cianca, 2021; Van der Vyver et al., 2020). In addition to these challenges, Skaalvik and Skaalvik
(2017) found that teachers often report a lack of professional autonomy and limited emotional
support, contributing to a growing sense of burnout. These ever-evolving difficulties that
educators face are continuing to push many out of the profession, often leaving students with
inexperienced and novice educators. Teacher retention is a growing concern universally as more
educators are leaving their classrooms for a different industry at a rapid pace (Van der Vyver et
al., 2020). Without a complete understanding of why educators are leaving the profession, no
advancements can be made to make them stay.