Investigating Factors Underlying Iranian High School English Teachers’ (De)motivation

Teacher motivation is of paramount importance to the growth of any education system. Despite its significance, the topic has been largely overlooked at the expense of learner motivation research. To further investigate the issue, a questionnaire was developed to find the status of teacher (de)motivation and its underlying components within the Iranian context. The survey also examined the difference between male versus female, and English language versus non-English subject teachers in terms of their (de)motivation. The participants consisted of 509 secondary school teachers from 18 Iranian cities. The questionnaire content was grounded on a focus-group interview as well as a number of extant need-based motivational theories. Upon data collection, a Principal Components Analysis was conducted to identify the minimally optimum items of the so-called 'need-based teacher motivation inventory' (NTMI). The findings underscored English teachers’ low motivation, suggesting that secondary school English teachers were less dissatisfied with their school administration and colleagues, the work environment, and the job itself. However, they felt demotivated by meagre earnings, inequity in payment, lack of autonomy and recognition, poor contribution to decision-makings, inadequacy of in-service training programs, unfair opportunities for promotion, non-standard teacher evaluation criteria, and unappealing instructional materials. The results also showed no difference between female teachers and their male counterparts. Nevertheless, English-subject teachers were found to be less motivated. Iranian Ministry of Education seems to be in desperate need of restoring the dignity of its staff through investing in improved services, reasonable payment, and imparting the recognition that teachers deserve.