Professional Motivation - a Teacher-Manager Side by Side Perspective

Abstract

Autonomous motivation is known as being positively related to individuals resilience and well-being. This article investigates the self-perceived teacher motivation in relation with manager-perceived teacher motivation. A comparative study was conducted using the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (Gagné et al., 2015). The scale was filled in for five main tasks that teachers were asked to evaluate: class preparation, teaching, evaluation of students, administrative tasks, and complementary tasks (Fernet et al., 2008). The participants were 40 elementary and secondary teachers and 25 school managers from Romanian schools. Teachers evaluated their own motivation while managers filled in the scale with their perception on the teachers they coordinate. Specifically, we found that teacher and school managers have different ways to experience or perceive teacher motivation on the five investigated dimensions. The research results are analyzed to suggest two levels of intervention for enhancing teacher motivation: 1. Teacher motivational development aiming at determining teachers’ motivational self-knowledge and transforming motivation; 2. Developing managerial strategies for enhancing teacher motivation.