Moonlighting teachers: a thematic analysis of personal meanings

The primary goal of this research project was to describe the experience of teachers who work two or more jobs—a phenomenon that was referred to as moonlighting for the purposes of this study. The high incidence of moonlighting activities by teachers is well-documented. Previous research suggests that teachers moonlight for economic reasons, but little else is known about the moonlighting experience.

An objective of this study was to construct a category system capable of describing the moonlighting experience. Unstructured interviews were conducted with twelve moonlighting teachers. Interview statements were analyzed according to phenomenological guidelines. As part of the data analysis, the interviews were reduced to key themes that were necessary for a description of the moonlighting experience. This process produced two category systems.

The first system consists of three categories that describe the experience of moonlighting by defining the relationship between two or more jobs and a person's identity. These categories are: continuous, complementary and contrasting. This category system describes the context for moonlighting activity.

In addition to the categories just described, a second system emerged. This category system describes the personal meaning of the moonlighting experience. These categories are: (1) autonomy and independence meanings, (2) self-esteem meanings, (3) social meanings, and (4) self-actualization meanings. These meanings reflect the perceived motivations and needs of moonlighting teachers.

The two category systems describe facets of the moonlighting experience that are both unique and universal. They reflect the personal meanings of moonlighting for the twelve teachers in this study; however, the researcher made the assumption that interviews with other moonlighting teachers would produce a similar description of the experience.

The results were discussed in terms of relevance to previous research on moonlighting teachers and to theories of symbolic interactionism and motivation. The implications of these findings for the teaching profession were also considered.