Use of Working Time in the Teaching Profession in Spain: The Cases of Galicia and the Basque Country

Abstract

Within the framework of studies on teacher professionalization, this study aims to analyze and compare the degree of professional dedication among non-university teachers in two autonomous communities of Spain: Galicia and the Basque Country. Data were collected through a questionnaire—previously validated by external experts—comprising 18 items grouped into four domains (1–5 school-teacher domain, 6–10 technical-political domain, 11–14 teacher training domain, and 15–18 scientific-academic domain). A total of 1,318 non-university teachers responded to the survey (742 from Galicia and 576 from the Basque Country). Inferential analyses were conducted using the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test for independent samples, and various Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) classification trees were generated to identify patterns in teachers' work dedication. The results reveal highly similar work dedication patterns in both regions, with only minor differences observed in the scientific-academic domain. Overall, the findings suggest a fragmented structure of the educational field with a hierarchical distribution of tasks, although a widespread, emerging involvement of teachers in nontraditional activities—beyond the school and classroom settings—is also evident. Among other conclusions, the study emphasizes the benefits of teachers expanding their roles outside of school.

Received: 19 June 2025 | Revised: 13 August 2025 | Accepted: 29 August 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data supporting this work will be available in the “e-ciencialDatosrepository” (https://edatos.consorciomadrono. es/dataverse/UAM) after an embargo from the date of publication until the end of the project (September 2025).

Author Contribution Statement

Roberto Sánchez-Cabrero: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Francisco Javier Pericacho-Gómez: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision. Raquel Moraleda-Esteban: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Héctor Monarca: Conceptualization, Validation, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.