Investigation of the relationship between teacher job satisfaction, empowerment and loyalty: the difference between teachers of ethnic majority students and teachers of ethnic minority students in Vietnam

While teacher loyalty, as in many other professions, generally stems from the satisfaction gained from their work, there remains considerable debate on how teachers of ethnic minority (EMI) students can derive satisfaction from their exceedingly exacting work. Although many researchers have investigated the relationship between teacher satisfaction and their loyalty to teaching, little is known about the variation in those characteristics between sub-groups of teachers teaching at EMI schools, especially in developing countries like Vietnam. This study therefore sought to understand the loyalty of teachers teaching at Vietnamese EMI schools. A structural equation model was used to analyze empirical data from a survey with 248 teachers. The findings indicated that teachers teaching EMI students, compared to their counterparts teaching ethnic majority (EMA) students, found evident satisfaction and showed unswerving loyalty to their teaching jobs.