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Being a teacher: altruistic and narcissistic expectations of pre-service teachers
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The article focuses on investigating pre-service teachers’ expectations of their future teaching career, in particular concerning teacher–student interrelations. In an attempt to comprehend why people choose teaching as a professional career, a conceptual model titled ‘Teachers’ altruistic-narcissistic classroom expectations’ was designed and tested. The model puts forward for consideration the idea that pre-service teachers view their future relations with students as being based on four basic psychological foundations: genuine altruism, paternalistic altruism, benevolent narcissism, and genuine narcissism. A study to test for the validity of this model, using Facet Theory and smallest space analysis as the methodological approach is reported. One hundred and sixty student–teachers participated in the study. The findings provided evidence in support of the model’s validity. It is argued that altruism and narcissism conjointly may be regarded as factors motivating people to opt for teaching as a career, and that altruistic and narcissistic expectations can predict teachers’ classroom behavior.
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... Similarly, Losier et al. (2001) describe introjection's association with inconsistent and uneven beliefs and actions. In regard to teacher motivation, Abós et al. (2018, p. 21) have identified the 'greater risk of burnout' for teachers associated with introjected regulation, a view shared by Friedman (2016). Yet McLachlan et al. (2011, p. 218) note potentially more positive 'adaptive behavioural outcomes with introjected regulation'. ...
... Such perspectives were shared by some teacher-participants, who describe perceptions of the negative consequences of competing for the capricious esteem of managers and colleagues, or the dangers of self-worth being contingent on success in a role where 'nothing is ever good enough'. This may lead to the effects observed by Pelletier et al. (2001) and Vallerand et al. (1997), whereby shortterm motivational gains from introjection rapidly dwindle, thus also aligning with work identifying teachers' emotional labour (Marent et al., 2020) or the risk of teacher burnout (Abós et al., 2018;Friedman, 2016;Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, 2017). ...
This article examines how teachers’ professional development motivations are affected by introjected regulation. A theoretical thematic analysis of teacher interview and survey open response data is conducted, exploring the extent to which teachers perceive themselves to be motivated by factors such as self-esteem and the regard of others. Findings suggest that introjected regulation represents a potent yet complex motivator for working teachers in respect to their professional development. Given the extensive use of introjected regulation in the performative environment in which many teachers work, these findings thus have real contemporary relevance.
... Carr (2003) claimed that teaching practice was internally related to overriding moral obligations to address the children's requirements and interests in professional recognition of their educational rights. It is difficult to separate teaching practice from explicit moral concerns about others' well-being due to education's normative character and good teaching's inherent moral quality (Colnerud, 2006;Friedman, 2016). The teaching profession's moral basis indicates that teachers' and children's shared welfare, and teachers' strong sense of morality, can cultivate positive job-crafting efforts with positive results. ...
Job crafting is the process of individuals redefining and adjusting their job in personally meaningful ways to improve their work experience. In this multiple case study, we explore how a group of kindergarten teachers conducted job crafting and examine its potential outcomes. Based on criterion sampling and purposeful selection, we recruit 28 kindergarten teachers and four principals working in Shanghai, China. Qualitative interviews and the analysis of kindergarten teachers’ diaries and work documents demonstrate that kindergarten teachers are not necessarily passive recipients of job characteristics; instead, they have the potential to be proactive agents in their work. Teachers craft their jobs in four main ways: task crafting, relational crafting, cognitive crafting, and work-life crafting. In addition, they employ 12 specific crafting techniques. The interviews reveal that by aligning work with teachers’ abilities, needs, and preferences, job crafting can help improve kindergarten teachers’ work experience and reduce occupational dysfunction. The results call for more focus on individual teachers’ discretionary and extra-role work behaviors. The findings have implications for policymakers, administrators, and principals in considering crafting a new pathway to increase staff stability, reduce teacher attrition, and improve education quality in early childhood settings. Some potential side effects of job crafting and precautionary strategies are also discussed.
... The mechanism of managing favorable and unfavorable emotions is technically called "Emotion Regulation" [7][8][9]. Emotion regulation generally pertains to "extrinsic and intrinsic processes that an individual goes through to evaluate, modify, or control his/her emotions to accomplish specific purposes and goals in life" ( [10], p. 27). Taking this into the language learning domain, Bielak and Mystkowska-Wiertelak [11] described emotion regulation as psychological, behavioral, and cognitive processes language learners use to modulate their academic emotions. ...
The second language acquisition (SLA) field has recently seen heightened interest in the study and application of positive psychology (PP). Emotion regulation is one of the concepts that has been stressed in PP. Several studies in PP have delved into how controlling one’s emotions improves second language learning/teaching. One of the concepts that has slipped the minds of researchers in the field is altruistic teaching. Unlike egocentric acts, altruistic teaching acts are performed to improve others’ well-being. Despite their importance in causing positive emotional effects, no study has investigated the impact of altruistic teaching acts on learners’ emotion regulation. To bridge this gap, the present study sought to investigate the effect of learners’ altruistic teaching on their emotion regulation. The study followed a sequential explanatory comparison group pre-test–post-test design. One hundred forty-one English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners were recruited for this intervention study and were divided into experimental and control groups. Learners in the experimental group performed altruistic teaching by teaching their peers how to write essays in English, whereas learners in the control group did group work tasks on English essay writing. The results of independent-sample t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA showed that altruistic teaching significantly impacts EFL learners’ emotion regulation. The results of qualitative data pointed to five themes, including enjoyment, self-esteem, bonding, devotion, and progress. Overall, the results suggested that altruistic teaching impacts learners’ emotion regulation by enhancing their enjoyment, self-esteem, bonding, devotion, and progress. The paper has theoretical and pedagogical implications for SLA research and practice.
... Altruistic behaviour can be demonstrated in the form of money, time, or physical sacrifice to enhance the well-being of others [69] and contribute to society [70]. Antecedents of altruistic motivation are empathy, affording support, active protection of those who are helpless, experiencing shame, and having a fear of victimization [65,71,72]. ...
Teachers, particularly in developing contexts, were vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As natural parental figures for students, they had to reconcile the dual role of ensuring the safety and health of students and their own and their family's well-being. The external crisis of COVID-19 heightened the negative experiences of teachers in their work environments during both online and physical instruction. This qualitative phenomenological study involving thirty (30) secondary school teachers in Ghana took a comprehensive and fresh look at how COVID-19 impacted the work motivation of teachers. It was found that teachers suffered a great deal of stress in the wake of the pandemic and had to face mounting concerns about their working conditions. The low morale of teachers precipitated by COVID-19 made them develop attrition intentions. However , intrinsic and altruistic traits such as passion, the feeling of responsibility, and the desire to contribute to society and foster student development made teachers resilient towards the deleteri-ous effects of the pandemic to promote optimal teaching. Future studies should investigate the installation of support structures that strengthen the motivation of teachers in unforeseen crises.
... Also, as Doo et al. (2020) note, as an organizational citizenship behavior, altruism is inseparable from teaching. Friedman (2016) discusses that the motivation to become a teacher comes from three sources, i.e. extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic. ...
According to positive psychology (PP), positive emotions contribute to language learning by helping learners recognize their strengths and overcome obstacles. One form of PP is altruism (altruistic teaching), which requires teaching without self-focus. The present study aimed to investigate how altruism affects the emotions and second language (L2) summary writing skills of Iranian L2 learners, drawing on an experimental (comparison group, pretest–posttest) design within a sequential explanatory design. The participants of the study were 130 Iranian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) with B1 general English language proficiency who were assigned to one intervention and one comparison group, and underwent the intervention and control intervention, respectively. Both the intervention and control intervention involved an instructional program of 12 sessions on summary writing with one teacher. What distinguished the intervention from the control intervention was that each student in the intervention group was supposed to teach for one hour one peer what they learned about English summary writing out of altruism. Analysis of the data showed that altruism has a positive instructional influence on the L2 summary writing skills of L2 learners by promoting their self-esteem, gratitude, connectedness and community, happiness, and compassion. The article ends with implications for research and practice in second language acquisition (SLA) and PP.
This paper reports on a comprehensive review of international evidence, synthesising the findings of some of the strongest empirical work on the main factors influencing people's decisions to be teachers or not. Four search engines, including Google and Google Scholar and five electronic databases identified 517 studies of which 212 were included in this narrative synthesis. These studies highlighted three main motivating factors: intrinsic, altruistic and extrinsic, although the order of the ranking varies with subjects, phase of education and gender of teachers. In general, these studies reported that women are more likely to report being motivated by intrinsic and altruistic reasons, while men are more likely to cite extrinsic reasons. Across all cultures, men are reported to be more strongly influenced by social norms and expectations and were less likely to choose primary and early years teaching. Women are also more likely to experience higher levels of career satisfaction and less social dissuasion than men. Research on motivation to teach is also often focused only on those who have already made the decision to teach. Therefore, policies based on these studies might only be attracting those who are already persuaded. This paper argues that to improve recruitment of under‐represented groups (e.g., males and STEM subject graduates), attention should instead be on those who might otherwise have gone into teaching, but have not. For this group, the review found that it is the status of the profession, the working environment and salary over the long term that are important.
Context and implications
Rationale for the study
The widespread shortage of teachers is a global concern. There are particular challenges in attracting and retaining men, STEM subject teachers and ethnic minority groups to teaching. There is currently no systematic synthesis of international evidence on how to get under‐represented groups into teaching.
Why the findings matter
Our findings matter because recruitment and retention of teachers is a pressing issue facing many countries. Our review considers a much more comprehensive range of factors than previous research. We weight the strength of evidence of each study so that policies to address shortages of under‐represented groups are based on the strongest evidence.
Implications for policy makers
Our review found that the strongest determinants of who go into teaching or not are the individuals' sociological background and choice of subject at school. Therefore, policies to attract more into teaching should focus on those who are still in school. For men and STEM subject graduates, extrinsic factors (status, prestige and working conditions) matter. Therefore, policies to recruit under‐represented groups should focus on these factors. Most previous research on this topic excludes non‐teachers, resulting in misleading results. This has implications for future research and government policies. Policies to attract people into teaching should consider the career drivers of those who might have otherwise gone into teaching, but did not.
This qualitative study examines the professional development of early education preservice teachers and the initiatives behind the formation of a professional identity in the early stages of their studies. Professional identity is examined through the motivational factors that guide students to a minor in early education. The theoretical framework draws on educational science and sociology and defines the context of professional development, professional identity, and motivation in the social environment. Narrative data have been analyzed using the FIT-Choice Scale, and the analysis has been further elaborated by classifying narratives into the three identity types of confident, strengthened, and cautious. The research mainly confirms international results on motivational factors influencing career choices in teaching. The results also provide a broader perspective on the impact of the local education system and the labor market on professional development and the formation of professional identity. Additionally, the results challenge the ideal of the preservice teacher. The research benefits not only teacher educators but also policy makers as well as preservice teachers who form their professional identity in the midst of various uncertainties and requirements.
This book was inspired by an intimate, stimulating, intellectually enrich ing conference that took place in Poland. However, the book is not a conference report. Rather, at the time of the conference, participants agreed that it would be worthwhile to create a volume representing the international state of knowledge in pro social behavior, and many of them agreed to write chapters. This volume is the outcome. The book contains chapters by outstanding researchers and scholars who have made substantial contributions to some aspect of scholarship about pro social behavior-helpfulness, generosity, kindness, coopera tion, or other behavior that benefits people. The book concerns itself with how prosocial behavior comes about and what influences contrib ute to or inhibit it; how prosocial behavior, or values and other personal characteristics that promote prosocial behavior, develop; how socializa tion, peer interaction, and other experiences contribute to development; and with the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral consequences of re ceiving help. Some chapters directly, and a number of them implicitly, concern themselves with applications of knowledge about prosocial be havior, particularly with the question of how cooperation and behavior that benefits other people can be promoted. The purpose of the book is. in part to show where the field stands and what knowledge we have accumulated, and in part to suggest fu ture directions and advance the field. It is a truly international book, with contributors from most countries where research on pro social be havior is being conducted.
Characteristics of entering teacher candidates, defined as students enrolled in their first education course, have been the focus of 44 studies located for this review. Four major categories of variables have been studied: (a) demographics and high-school background; (b) motivation to teach and career expectations; (c) confidence and optimism or anxiety and concerns about teaching; and (d) perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of teachers. Most of the research employed a survey methodology. This article presents a descriptive synthesis of findings from these studies. The principle of thematic consistency with empirical variability—that is, that the general conclusions of the studies have been similar even though the data have shown differences from study to study—is advanced to organize a discussion of what is known about entering teacher candidates and suggestions for future research in this field.
In recent years several attempts have been made to describe motivational mechanisms underlying altruistic behavior and various mechanisms have been proposed (see Karylowski, 1977, 1982a, for a review). There now seems to be an emerging consensus that altruism is a polimotivated phenomenon and that one-factor theories are insufficient (cf. Bar-Tal, 1976; Piliavin, Dovidio, Gaertner, & Clark, 1981; Reykowski, 1975, 1979; Rushton, 1980; Staub, 1978).