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Which teachers feel good and adopt a motivating teaching style? The role of teaching identity and motivation to teach
... The findings present a taxonomy of academic identity archetypes, illustrating how TEL has created new forms of academic identities and associated activities. Understanding these changes is critical for management in addressing the complexities of academic work through process and policy development (Bisaillon et al. 2023), thereby enhancing organisational effectiveness and faculty well-being (Vermote et al. 2023). This study is situated in a post-Covid world, considering how technology now impacts teaching activities in HE. ...
... Without proper institutional recognition, academics may gravitate towards less experimental and fulfilling modes of identity work. As stated by Vermote et al. (2023) those with a well-defined instructor-oriented academic identity reported less emotional exhaustion, resulting in a more motivating teaching style, and a lesser chance of the individual leaving academia. Notably, given varying levels of technology self-efficacy and adoption across instructors, teaching innovation should not be viewed solely through the lens of TEL utilisation, as this could lead to some instructors becoming disenfranchised. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic catalysed significant transformations in higher education, prominently manifesting through the accelerated adoption of Technology-Enabled Learning (TEL). This shift not only redefined pedagogical practices but also significantly impacted the teaching-orientated identity work of academics. This study explores the repercussions of TEL on academic identity within the post-pandemic educational landscape, moving beyond the confines of online learning to consider the broader technological influences on teaching and learning. The study commences with a review of the existing literature on academic identity work, including an analysis of both the internal and external influences that shape this identity work. Through 20 interviews conducted with the faculty of higher education bodies, the study introduces a taxonomy of five overlapping academic identity archetypes; the entertainer, the hunter-gatherer, the gatekeeper, the humanist, and the technologist. These archetypes provide a classification for understanding the complex, multifaceted nature of academic identities and their evolution in response to TEL. Within this classification, we also include the multitude of rituals and activities undertaken within each archetype as modes of identity work. As such, this study underscores the dynamic, fluid nature of instructor-orientated academic identity, recognising the challenges and opportunities posed by TEL. By fostering environments that acknowledge and leverage these diverse identities, academic institutions can enhance their faculty's capacity to innovate and excel in teaching in an increasingly digital world.
... As a teacher's teaching philosophy influences their classroom practice (Opdenakker & Damme, 2006), it is important to explore this construct along with other affective constructs. Vermote et al. (2023) found that teachers with a strong sense of professional identity adopted more motivational styles of teaching. Specifically, teachers with a stronger sense of identity "reported acting more autonomy supportive and structuring in the classroom" as well as "tend[ing] to emphathize more with students' needs, interests, and concerns" (p. ...
Background:
Teaching will bring work stress and affect emotions, as well as require a high level of professional identity. However, few have examined trilateral relationships between work stress (in terms of challenge-hindrance stress), professional identity, and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers during COVID-19.
Objective:
Based on the conservation of resource theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity, as well as explore the mediating effects of professional identity between job stress and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted, with 753 preschool teachers completing a self-report questionnaire. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect testing.
Results:
Research indicated that 1) challenge-hindrance stress was positively correlated with surface acting (r = 0.21, p < 0.01, and r = 0.28, p < 0.01) but negatively correlated with the expression of naturally felt emotions (r = -0.08, p < 0.05, and r = -0.12, p < 0.01); 2) Challenge-hindrance stress was negatively correlated with professional identity (r = -0.08, p < 0.05, and r = -0.20, p < 0.01); 3) Professional identity exhibited positive correlations with the three dimensions of emotional labor (r = 0.12, p < 0.01; r = 0.64, p < 0.01; and r = 0.56, p < 0.01) and partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor.
Conclusion:
The study underscored that challenge-hindrance stress affected emotional labor directly and indirectly through the mediating role of professional identity. Interventions focusing on alleviating work stress and promoting professional identity through comprehensive training could effectively mitigate emotional labor among preschool teachers.
The aim of this study was to estimate the influence of perceived support from principals and teacher professional identity (TPI) on teacher’s motivation, vigour and burnout using a longitudinal design during a school year. A sample of 544 secondary teachers reported their perceived support from principals and TPI at the beginning of the year (T1) and their self-determined motivation, vigour, and burnout both at the beginning (T1) and at the end of the year (T2). Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that the support from principals was associated with T1 TPI. T1 TPI only partially predicted T2 self-determined motivation (controlling T1 scores), and T2 self-determined motivation was associated with T2 burnout and vigour (controlling T1 scores). The SEM revealed a positive process involving perceived support from principals, pedagogical expertise, autonomous motivation, and well-being indicators. In summary, the present study extends the knowledge about the teacher well-being process and the role of contextual and individual antecedents. In an applied perspective, to prevent burnout, teachers need efficient initial and continuing pedagogical education to be armed in front of the students and need the support of their principals during the school year.
The lockdown measures that were taken to contain the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 caused many parents to stay at home with their children. This unusual situation created both risks and opportunities for families. In the present study, we examined the role of parental identity as a resource for parental adaptation during this challenging period, thereby considering both parenthood experiences and parents’ general mental health while also taking into account the cumulative risk to which parents were exposed (e.g., single parenthood). Furthermore, to shed light on the mechanisms behind the effects of parental identity, this study addressed the mediating role of parental satisfaction of their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. During the lockdown period in Belgium, 492 parents (88% mothers, Mage = 44 years, 63.7% in intact family, 31.2% with a university degree) completed online questionnaires on parental identity, need-based experiences, positive and negative parenthood experiences, and mental health. Several weeks earlier, these participants also rated their mental health and a variety of risks they were exposed to as part of a larger study. Results showed that a clear and self-endorsed parental identity was related to better parental adaptation, with parental need satisfaction playing a mediating role in these associations. Moreover, these associations remained significant after controlling for the prior levels of parental mental health and for cumulative risk. Overall, findings suggest that parental identity serves as a source of resilience in an uncertain period such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Grounded in SDT, several studies have highlighted the role of teachers’ motivating and demotivating styles for students’ motivation, learning, and physical activity in physical education (PE). However, most of these studies focused on a restricted number of motivating strategies (e.g., offering choice) or dimensions (e.g., autonomy support). Recently, researchers have developed the Situations-in-School (i.e., SIS-Education) questionnaire, which allows one to gain a more integrative and fine-grained insight into teachers’ engagement in autonomy-support, structure, control, and chaos through a circular structure (i.e., a circumplex). Although teaching in PE resembles teaching in academic courses in many ways, some of the items of the original situation-based questionnaire (e.g., regarding homework) are irrelevant to the PE context. In the present study, we therefore sought to develop a modified, PE-friendly version of this earlier validated SIS-questionnaire—the SIS-PE. Findings in a sample of Belgian (N = 136) and French (N = 259) PE teachers, examined together and as independent samples, showed that the variation in PE teachers’ motivating styles in this adapted version is also best captured by a circumplex structure, with four overarching styles and eight subareas differing in their level of need support and directiveness. The SIS-PE possesses excellent convergent and concurrent validity. With the adaptations being successful, great opportunities for future research on PE teachers (de-)motivating styles are created.
Although college presents a time for personal and vocational development, little research has examined individuals’ intentional use of college as a growth opportunity. Consequently, the current study assessed relationships among personal growth initiative (an individual’s active desire to grow in personally relevant domains), basic needs satisfaction at college, and positive outcomes in samples of students from a large, public, predominantly White institution (n = 818) and a small, private, minority-majority college (n = 195). Using structural equation modeling, we examined a hypothesized model in which personal growth initiative was indirectly related to the two outcomes (psychological well-being and vocational commitment) through the satisfaction of the basic needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness; this was compared to a reverse model. The hypothesized model was a better fit for the data in the university sample, and both models had similar fit for the college sample. Tests of indirect effects using the hypothesized model showed evidence of mediation, with similarities and differences between the samples. Finally, the two models were invariant across institutions at the structural level. PGI and basic needs satisfaction explained over half of the variance in psychological well-being and approximately one-quarter of the variance in vocational commitment in both samples.
Over the past two decades, identity has emerged as a concept framing studies of early career researcher experience. Yet, identity is an amorphous concept, understood and used in a range of ways. This systematic review aimed to unpack the underpinnings of the notion of researcher identity. The final sample consisted of 38 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals in the last 20 years. Analyses focused on (a) identifying the dimensions used to define researcher identity, and (b) characterising the meta-theories—the underlying assumptions of the research—in relation to these dimensions. We identified four different stances towards researcher identity (clusters), based on variation on the identity dimensions in relation to the meta-theories. We characterised these as (1) transitioning among identities, (2) balancing identity continuity and change, (3) personal identity development through time and (4) personal and stable identity. These stances incorporate thought-provoking nuances and complex conceptualisations of the notion of researcher identity, for instance, that meta-theory was insufficient to characterise researcher identity stance. The contribution of the study is first to be able to differentiate four characterizations of researcher identity—important given that many studies had not clearly expressed a stance. The second is the potential of the four dimensions to help characterise identity, in past as well as future research—thus a useful tool for those working in this area. Many questions remain, but perhaps the biggest is to what extent and under what conditions is identity a productive notion for understanding early career researcher experience?
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a broad framework for understanding factors that facilitate or undermine intrinsic motivation, autonomous extrinsic motivation, and psychological wellness, all issues of direct relevance to educational settings. We review research from SDT showing that both intrinsic motivation and well-internalized (and thus autonomous) forms of extrinsic motivation predict an array of positive outcomes across varied educational levels and cultural contexts and are enhanced by supports for students’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Findings also show a dynamic link between teacher and student motivation, as teachers are themselves impacted and constrained by controlling mandates, institutional pressures, and leadership styles. Ironically, despite substantial evidence for the importance of psychological need satisfactions in learning contexts, many current educational policies and practices around the globe remain anchored in traditional motivational models that fail to support students’ and teachers’ needs, a knowledge versus policy gap we should aspire to close.
Although different measures for (de)motivating teaching are available for primary and secondary education, a fine-grained instrument to assess a variety of motivating and demotivating teaching practices in higher education is lacking. Adopting a Self-Determination Theory perspective, this study first used the newly developed Situation-in-School Questionnaire—Higher Education to examine in a sample of higher education teachers (N = 357; Mage = 43.90 years) whether a broad set of need-supportive and need-thwarting teaching practices are organized in a similar circular structure as in secondary education (Aelterman et al. in J Educ Psychol 111:497–521, 2019). Second, this study addressed the role of higher education teachers’ motivation to teach (i.e., autonomous, controlled, amotivation) and their beliefs about the malleability of students’ intelligence (i.e., fixed and growth mindset) in relation to the various distinguished teaching approaches. Results of multidimensional scaling analyses confirmed the hypothesized circular structure of eight different (de)motivating teaching approaches that differ in their level of need-supportiveness and directiveness. Second, hierarchical regression analyses provided evidence for the fairly independent role of teachers’ motivation and mindsets, with the predictive role of each predictor systematically varying as one moves along the circumplex. Autonomous motivation and a growth mindset related positively to more motivating approaches (e.g., guiding, attuning), while controlled motivation, amotivation and a fixed mindset related positively to more demotivating approaches (e.g., domineering, abandoning). The present findings shed new light on the factors that underlie teacher-reported engagement in (de)motivating practices in higher education.
In recent years, there has been heightened interest in the active role of employees in shaping activities and experiences in their pursuit of optimal functioning (i.e., feeling and performing well), referred to as job-, leisure-, home-, and work-life balance crafting. Various perspectives have emphasized distinct dimensions within the crafting process (i.e., motives, behaviors, life domains, and outcomes) yielding a rich but fragmented theoretical account. With psychological needs satisfaction as the underlying process, we propose an integrative model to account for past conceptualizations of crafting motives and efforts across a person´s various role identities. This integration highlights the importance of recognizing unfulfilled needs, matching needs and crafting efforts, within- and between-level temporal dynamics of the crafting process, and possibilities for spillover and compensation processes across identity domains. Accordingly, the Integrative Needs Model of Crafting explains a) why and how people craft, b) when and why crafting efforts may (not) be effective in achieving optimal functioning, c) the sequential process of crafting over time, and d) how crafting processes unfold across different identity domains.
Ample research has demonstrated the benefits of basic autonomy supportive practices (e.g., perspective-taking, choice, minimizing-control) for adolescents’ psychosocial functioning. Herein, we posit that there is one additional autonomy supportive practice with specific importance for adolescents’ development: Reflective Authentic Inner Compass facilitation. This practice is posited to contribute to the formation of an Authentic Inner-Compass: An action-guiding schema, informing youth on what they truly value, need, and want, and consisting of two parts: (1) A foundation including authentic values, interests, and life-aspirations, and (2) Autonomous commitment to future-oriented goals and decisions, based on the foundation. A longitudinal study of 18–19 year-old Israeli adolescents showed that perceived Reflective Authentic Inner Compass Facilitation by instructors uniquely predicted (beyond Basic Autonomy Support) adolescents’ experience of having an authentic inner-compass in the military domain, which then predicted autonomous engagement in plan-promoting activities. A cross-sectional study with 16−18 year-old Belgian adolescents showed that perceived Reflective Authentic Inner Compass Facilitation by parents uniquely predicted (beyond Basic Autonomy Support) the experience of having an authentic inner-compass, which then related positively to well-being. Implications of the notion of the authentic inner compass for the conceptualization of autonomy support and the experience of autonomy are discussed.
Vocational identity is a prerequisite for enhancing societal inclusion of at-risk emerging adults. School curricula and rebound programs need insights into individual differences of these youths to effectively foster their vocational identity. Identifying three aspects of vocational identity, a questionnaire study among at-risk emerging adults in The Netherlands (N = 996) examined the relationship between clusters of demographic, personality, self-sufficiency, self-competence, and school engagement characteristics and vocational identity performing blockwise entry analyses. Largest proportions of variance were explained by personality traits and, to a lesser extent, motivation, resilience, and valuing school outcome. These malleable characteristics offer opportunities for interventions.
Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), prior research has demonstrated that physical education (PE) teachers may have different reasons to engage in teaching. Although some person-centered studies have identified varied motivational profiles in PE teachers, none of these studies have included the three forms of motivation (i.e., autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation). This study aims to identify teachers’ motivational profiles, using the three forms of motivation. Moreover, differences between the obtained profiles in terms of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion were examined. A sample of 107 primary school PE teachers participated. Four distinct motivational profiles were identified: “relatively amotivated,” “somewhat motivated,” “autonomous-controlled motivated,” and “relatively autonomously motivated.” Results showed that the predominantly autonomously motivated PE teachers reported the most adaptive pattern of outcomes. Although PE teachers from the “relatively autonomously motivated” group did not differ in terms of job satisfaction when compared to those in the “autonomous-controlled motivated” group, the former displayed lower values of emotional exhaustion. These findings support SDT in that more motivation is not necessarily better if this additional motivation comes from controlled reasons. These results could raise awareness among school stakeholders about the importance of increasing PE teachers’ autonomous motivation.
Purpose – The actions of school leaders engender working conditions that can play a role in positively (or negatively) affecting teachers’ motivation, well-being or professional practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore how leader actions bring about positive teacher outcomes through meeting teachers’ psychological needs at three distinct levels: the intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational.
Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of over 1,500 teachers from 73 schools in a large, high-poverty, urban Midwestern school district, the authors applied a multilevel path analysis to the study of the relationships between the intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational dimensions of teacher psychological needs and the teacher affective states of burnout, organizational commitment and intention to leave the school and/or profession.
Findings – Whereas the intrapersonal dimension works primarily through burnout, the findings suggest that the interpersonal dimension (teacher–principal interactions) primarily functions to cultivate organizational commitment among teachers. At the organizational level, cultivating a trusting, enabling work environment where teachers can build on existing knowledge and skills had a demonstrated relationship to collective teacher burnout and organizational commitment, but only to the degree that these actions serve to build collective teacher efficacy.
Practical implications – In addressing existing deficits in support for teachers’ psychological needs within a school, school leaders have a significant mechanism through which to affect the attitudes and emotions of teachers which precede turnover behavior. However, addressing teacher psychological needs should be thought of as multidimensional – no single dimension (either the intrapersonal, interpersonal or organizational) alone will be sufficient. Principals should expect to work both one-on-one as well as collectively with teachers to address school working conditions which support their psychological needs as learners.
Originality/value – Prior studies examining the various working conditions of schools have included many common constructs, but the authors demonstrate how self-determination theory could be used to unify these seemingly unique characteristics of school working conditions with respect to how they support (or thwart) the psychological needs of teachers. The authors also empirically test the relationship of these dimensions to a wide-range of commonly-used teacher affective outcomes.
Teacher burnout and turnover are known to be especially high for early career teachers (ECTs). However, the link between teacher burnout and turnover has received little attention in the current age of accountability. This study investigates how administrative climate is related to ECT burnout and subsequent career decisions using data from Michigan Indiana ECT Study participants (n = 184). Results from linear regressions show that higher measures of administrative climate are strongly associated with lower levels of burnout. Subsequent logit models reveal that higher burnout, in turn, predicted ECT turnover while administrative climate surprisingly did not. These findings may lead to a better understanding of school leadership’s established role as a top determinant of teacher mobility.
Guided by Self-Determination Theory, we offer an integrative and fine-grained analysis of teachers’ classroom motivating style (i.e., autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos) to resolve existing controversies in the literature, such as how these dimensions relate to each other and to educationally important student and teacher outcomes. Six independent samples of secondary school teachers ( N = 1332; M age = 40.9 years) and their students ( N = 1735, M age = 14.6 years) read 12 ecologically valid vignettes to rate four dimensions of teachers’ motivating styles, using the Situations-in-School (SIS) questionnaire. Multidimensional scaling analyses of both the teacher and the student data indicated that motivating and demotivating teaching could best be graphically represented by a two-dimensional configuration that differed in terms of need support and directiveness. In addition, eight subareas (two subareas per motivating style) were identified along a circumplex model: participative and attuning, guiding and clarifying, demanding and domineering, and abandoning and awaiting. Correlations between these eight subareas and a variety of construct validation and outcome variables (e.g., student motivation, teacher burnout) followed an ordered sinusoid pattern. The discussion focuses on the conceptual implications and practical advantages of adopting a circumplex approach and sketches a number of important future research directions.
This study tests an explanatory model based on self-determination theory, which posits that pressure experienced by teachers when they are evaluated based on their students' academic performance will differentially predict teacher adaptive and maladaptive motivation, well-being, and ill-being. A total of 360 Spanish physical education teachers completed a multi-scale inventory. We found support for a structural equation model that showed that perceived pressure predicted teacher autonomous motivation negatively, predicted amotivation positively, and was unrelated to controlled motivation. In addition, autonomous motivation predicted vitality positively and exhaustion negatively, whereas controlled motivation and amotivation predicted vitality negatively and exhaustion positively. Amotivation significantly mediated the relation between pressure and vitality and between pressure and exhaustion. The results underline the potential negative impact of pressure felt by teachers due to this type of evaluation on teacher motivation and psychological health.
The job satisfaction of academics and researchers has been investigated recently, but the influence of different levels of social identification (organizational, workgroup and professional identification) has never been examined. The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between different levels of social identification, work engagement and job satisfaction. Our study involved researchers from a French public institute who responded to an online survey (N = 383). The results show that different levels of social identification are positively correlated with researchers’ job satisfaction, and that workgroup explains the most variance, followed by professional and finally organizational identification. This study is also the first to show the mediating role of the dedication dimension of work engagement on the relationships between professional identification and job satisfaction. The implications of the findings for future studies in research institutes and universities are discussed.
Based on career construction theory, this study examined the relationships between career adaptability, organizational success, and individual career success with the moderating effect of career identity. Using a time-lagged survey design, we tested the proposed model on a sample of 1,652 employees from 20 Chinese companies. The results showed that career adaptability was negatively related to turnover intention but positively associated with supervisor-rated job performance, career satisfaction, and yearly income. In addition, the relationship between career adaptability and turnover intention was significantly positive for employees with low levels of career identity. Moreover, the positive relationship between career adaptability and career satisfaction was stronger for employees with high levels of career identity, and the relationship between career adaptability and yearly income was significantly positive for employees with high levels of career identity. We discuss the research implications for the development of career adaptability and career counseling.
An imbalance between work-related stressors and resources, which we refer to as stress exposure, is often found to impair teachers' occupational well-being. However, the psychological mechanisms that explain this relationship are mostly unknown. We assumed that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness with students, and relatedness with colleagues acts as a mediator. To test this assumption, we conducted a two-week diary study with 152 beginning teachers. A multilevel within-subject mediation analysis showed that teachers felt less work enthusiasm and more emotional exhaustion on days when stress exposure was high. Whereas the needs for competence and relatedness with students explained the association with work enthusiasm, the need for competence mediated the relationship with emotional exhaustion. Additionally, the least experienced teachers felt more emotional exhaustion when the need for relatedness with students was not satisfied. These findings add to our understanding of the daily intra-individual processes affecting beginning teachers' occupational well-being.
Problems with identity formation are associated with a range of psychiatric disorders. Yet, the mechanisms underlying such problems and how they are refined into specific diagnostic presentations require further investigation. The present study investigated identity processes among 123 women with eating disorders (ED) and age-matched community controls via a newly developed identity model. Several clinical outcome variables were assessed. Patients with ED scored lower on committing to and identifying with identity-related choices and scored higher on maladaptive or ruminative exploration, identity diffusion and identity disorder. They also experienced less identity achievement as compared with controls. The identity disorder status was associated with the highest scores on anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder symptoms, and non-suicidal self-injury and the lowest scores on need satisfaction. Results indicate that patients with ED experience more identity problems than community controls and those captured by an identity disorder status experience the most problematic psychosocial functioning. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
There is a large interest in how people can be more protean in their career development, exhibiting a self-directed striving for personally valued career outcomes. However, existing research on the protean career needs to better address issues of antecedents and outcomes as well as unique effects of a protean career orientation (PCO). We present two studies investigating how PCO is related to vocational identity clarity and occupational self-efficacy. Study 1 reports a 1-year, three-wave cross-lagged study among 563 university students and established that PCO preceded changes in identity and self-efficacy—but not the other way around. A 6-month longitudinal study of 202 employees, Study 2 showed that identity clarity and self-efficacy mediated the effects of PCO on career satisfaction and proactive career behaviours. PCO only possessed incremental predictive validity regarding proactive career behaviours. However, we could not confirm specific direct or mediated effects of PCO on job satisfaction. These results imply that PCO is closely related to vocational identity clarity and self-efficacy because it enhances these career attitudes. Moreover, identity and self-efficacy mediate some, but not all of the effects of PCO on important career outcomes.
This literature review summarises the growing body of literature discussing teacher identities of university teachers. The aim was to understand what strengthens or constrains the development of a teacher identity. A qualitative synthesis of 59 studies was carried out. The review showed that several factors contribute to the development of teacher identity. While contact with students and staff development programmes were experienced as strengthening teacher identity, the wider context of higher education was experienced as having a constraining effect. Furthermore, the impact of the direct work environment was experienced as either strengthening or constraining, depending on whether or not teaching is valued in the department. Five psychological processes were found to be involved in the development of a teacher identity: a sense of appreciation, a sense of connectedness, a sense of competence, a sense of commitment, and imagining a future career trajectory. The findings suggest that developing a teacher identity in the higher education context is not a smooth process. In order to empower university teachers, it is important to reward teaching excellence and build community. Staff development activities can play a role in helping teachers to develop strategies for gaining confidence and taking active control of their work situation, both individually and collectively. The authors argue that more attention should be paid to the implicit messages that departments convey to their teaching faculty.
Longitudinal patterns of identity formation were analyzed in a representative cohort group of Finnish men and women born in 1959 across ages 27, 36, 42, and 50. The data were drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality. Identity status (diffused, moratorium, foreclosed, achieved) from all four ages was available for 172 participants (54% females). Marcia’s Identity Status Interview used in this research included five domains: religious beliefs, political identity, occupational career, intimate relationships, and lifestyle. The findings indicated great variability in identity status across domains at each age level, and the identity trajectories fluctuated from age 27 to 50. The developmental trend from age 27 to 50 was moderately progressive (toward achievement) for the five domains and for overall identity, with the exception of a slightly regressive trend in male religious identity. Remaining stable in the same status category across the four measurements was rare and emerged only for diffusion in the ideological domains. Women generally outnumbered men in identity achievement at earlier ages, but the gender differences diminished in most domains at age 50, except in religious identity. In women overall diffusion decreased over time, but in men it remained at about 20% at ages 42 and 50.
The aim of this special issue is to shed light in the dark side of identity formation in adolescence and emerging adulthood, that is, to provide some understanding in what exactly can go wrong in identity development. After summarizing the recent developments in identity development literature, in this introduction the main findings of all thirteen empirical papers are summarized into three overarching themes: (1) lack of identity integration as a risk factor, (2) reconsideration of commitment as a sign of identity uncertainty, and (3) ruminative exploration as another risk factor undermining healthy identity development. Finally, given that all papers in this special issue are based on conference presentations at the 14th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA), some more information on that conference in included in this introduction.
The Career Identity Development Inventory (CIDI) was designed to be used at the person level to assign individuals in a career identity status that would indicate how they approached a career identity crisis and identify developmental needs to resolve career identity concerns. However, given that CIDI has not been tested using a person-centered approach, the first aim of this study was to demonstrate whether and how CIDI can be used to determine individuals' career identity statuses that are theoretically informed by Marcia's identity status paradigm and neo-Eriksonian identity literature. Using a sample of 410 US college graduates, we identified, through a cluster analytic approach, eight groups of distinct career identity profiles, from which four groups resembled Marcia's identity statuses and four other groups were unique variants of identity statuses that extended this paradigm and illustrated a more gradual process of career identity development. This person-centered approach enabled us to subsequently provide evidence of the criterion validity of CIDI, which was the second aim of this study. We examined how the eight career identity statuses derived from the cluster analysis differed according to validation-criterion variables and found that individuals assigned to statuses characterized by high levels of career identity commitments tended to have better career and psychosocial functioning than individuals assigned to statuses characterized by low levels of career identity commitments. Implications along with directions for future research are discussed with respect to developmental challenges associated with career exploration and critical processes of forming a constructed career identity.
This study explored the relationships between teacher satisfaction/frustration of the three basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness, and adoption of motivating and demotivating teaching styles. Nine hundred and forty-nine Italian teachers filled in self-report questionnaires. The results showed that competence and relatedness satisfaction were associated with the participative, attuning, guiding, and clarifying motivating subareas. Although competence frustration was associated with all the demotivating subareas, relatedness frustration was only associated with the domineering and abandoning subareas. Autonomy frustration was associated with the demanding, domineering, and awaiting subareas. The theoretical and practical implications for fostering teachers' motivating style are discussed.
Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined the explanatory role of teachers’ need-based experiences in the association between teachers’ perceived social pressure (i.e., from the principal, colleagues, and students) and their personal adjustment and motivating teaching style. In total, 482 secondary school teachers (M age = 39.9 years) participated in this questionnaire-based study. Teacher need satisfaction was primarily related to adaptive work adjustment (i.e., job satisfaction) and a motivating teaching style (i.e., provided autonomy support and structure), while need frustration was primarily related to maladjustment (i.e., emotional exhaustion) and a demotivating teaching style (i.e., provided control and chaos). Need-based experiences played either a partial or fully mediating role in the relation between different sources of social pressure and all but one outcome (i.e., chaos). Pressure from students yielded the strongest relation to teacher outcomes, suggesting that the need for targeting this source in intervention research and daily school life. Overall, the present findings highlight the unifying role of need-based experiences as a critical mechanism underlying the relation between different sources of pressure and both teachers’ personal adjustment and their motivating teaching style.
The present study firstly establishes physical education (PE) teachers’ motivational profiles based on their autonomous motivation, controlled motivation and amotivation and, secondly, investigates how different PE teachers’ motivational profiles differ in terms of certain maladaptive antecedents (i.e. psychological need frustration, pressures perceived at work and burnout). It also addresses the differences in their students’ perception of autonomy support, psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation. A total of 105 PE teachers and their 2164 students completed validated questionnaires. Four profiles were retained in the cluster analysis. Results showed that teachers who were high on autonomous motivation displayed the most optimal pattern of outcomes, whereas teachers who were high on amotivation showed the opposite pattern. Analysis of the established profiles suggested that the experience of controlled motivation was linked with maladaptive outcomes among both teachers and students. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.
Autonomy-supportive teaching is the adoption of a student-focused attitude and an understanding interpersonal tone that enables the skillful enactment of seven autonomy-satisfying instructional behaviors to serve two purposes—support intrinsic motivation and support internalization. Using self-determination theory principles and empirical findings, researchers have developed and implemented numerous teacher-focused and methodologically-rigorous interventions to provide teachers with the professional developmental experience they need to learn how to become more autonomy supportive. The findings from 51 autonomy-supportive teaching interventions (including 38 randomized control trials) collectively show that (1) teachers can learn how to become more autonomy supportive during instruction (autonomy-supportive teaching is malleable) and, once learned, (2) this greater autonomy-supportive teaching produces a wide range of educationally important student, teacher, and classroom climate benefits (autonomy-supportive teaching is beneficial). Recognizing this, the article shows how the recent surge in autonomy-supportive intervention research has advanced the conceptual understanding of the nature of autonomy-supportive teaching and clarified its potential to improve educational practice.
Teachers' motivational beliefs—i.e., teachers' self-efficacy and felt responsibility for educational outcomes—can shape their professional decision-making and approaches to teaching. However, theorized associations with student outcomes remain elusive. In a multi-level analysis with 96 Swiss vocational teachers and their 1300 students, we examined the interrelations between teachers' self-efficacy, responsibility, teacher- and student-reported autonomy-supportive versus psychologically controlling teaching, and student motivation (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement). Teachers' motivational beliefs predicted their endorsement of autonomy-supportive teaching, which in turn predicted student-reported autonomy support. Student-reported autonomy support was a powerful predictor of student engagement. Teachers’ motivational beliefs did not predict student-reported instructional practices and engagement directly, and indirect effects via teacher- and student-reported autonomy support were small. Teacher- and student-reported controlling practices were not significantly correlated. The degree of (mis)alignment of teacher- and student-reported instructional practices is a key ingredient in understanding the often missing link between teacher motivation and student outcomes.
Self-determination theory (SDT) is one of the most extensively applied frameworks to understand relations involving autonomous and controlled motivations in educational settings. However, a cumulative assessment of SDT's predictive validity for important teacher outcomes has never been conducted. Our study presents an analysis of the antecedents and consequences of autonomous and controlled teacher motivation by drawing on an overall database of 1117 correlation coefficients across 102 independent samples. Regarding antecedents, psychometric meta-analysis results indicate that workplace context and individual difference variables were generally positively and negatively associated with autonomous and controlled teacher motivation, respectively. Similar results were observed for relations involving basic need satisfaction and both forms of teacher motivation. Regarding outcomes, results indicate that autonomous teacher motivation is positively associated with teacher well-being, job satisfaction, and autonomy-supportive in-role functioning and negatively associated with teacher distress and burnout. In contrast, results for controlled teacher motivation were generally in the opposite direction. Exploratory moderator analyses showed that results were generally not moderated by educational setting or the type of teaching occupation, but some associations were moderated by teacher age and career tenure. Meta-analytic path analyses further showed that teachers' psychological need satisfaction was associated with teacher well-being, distress, and autonomy-supportive teaching indirectly through autonomous motivation. Substantially attenuated indirect effects were observed when controlled teacher motivation was the intervening variable. Overall, our results add credence to the claim that SDT may offer a fruitful perspective for predicting teacher- and student-related outcomes. Limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Performance management is an ongoing process that intends to facilitate employee performance. There are concerns that this may lead to negative employee experiences. In education, an effectively operating performance management process is crucial, considering the challenging and demanding nature of the teaching profession. Drawing on social exchange theory and the job demands-resources model, we propose that when teachers perceive performance management as a process that adheres to the principles of a so-called strong HRM system (i.e. one that communicates distinctively, consistently and reaches high levels of consensus), they will feel more appreciated, valued and energized, as signaled by higher levels of affective organizational commitment and less exhaustion. We hypothesize that, in turn, these outcomes improve teacher performance. We collected data from 458 Flemish teachers and matched these with performance ratings provided by school principals. The results show that the perceived strength of a performance management process relates negatively to teacher exhaustion while relating positively to their performance. Moreover, the relationship between perceived performance management process strength and teacher performance appeared to be indirect, operating primarily through affective organizational commitment. We discuss several theoretical and practical implications.
PURPOSE: Using Self-Determination Theory, the purpose was to determine whether work climate, students’ motivation, and teachers’ basic psychological needs could predict clinical teachers’ autonomous and controlled motivation to teach and whether clinical teachers’ motivations could predict student- and teacher-centered teaching approaches
METHODS: A correlational cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 across three Dental Schools in Chile, in which 206 clinical teachers participated (80.4% response rate). Data were collected on demographic characteristics and five self-reported questionnaires measuring teachers’ perceptions of the work climate, students’ motivation, the satisfaction and frustration of their basic psychological needs, motivation to teach, and teaching approaches. Data were analyzed using bivariate correlations and structural equation modeling.
RESULTS: Alpha coefficients were acceptable (0.701-0.948). Correlation and structural equation modeling analyses showed that teachers’ perceiving a work climate characterized by a supportive supervisor-teacher relationship and students’ autonomous motivation, predicted the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs leading to autonomous motivation to teach. Autonomous motivation to teach, in turn, predicted a student-centered teaching approach. These results were controlled for the confounding effects of age, gender, teaching experience, and type of university.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that clinical teachers' optimal motivation is of paramount importance for promoting an adequate learning environment. Therefore, efforts should be made to understand and foster different aspects that promote clinical teachers' satisfaction of their basic psychological needs and autonomous motivation, especially regarding the role of teachers’ supervisors and how teachers perceive their students’ motivation.
Given the complexity of societal, technological, and economic challenges encountered by schools and teachers, one may wonder whether and how teachers can still optimally motivate their students. To adopt a motivating role in today’s ever-changing, even stormy, educational landscape, teachers need more than a checklist of motivating practices. They also need a fundamental theoretical perspective that can serve as a general source of inspiration for their everyday classroom practices across various situations and in interaction with different students. Herein, we argue that self-determination theory represents such a valuable perspective. In Part I, we discuss the satisfaction of learners’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness as a source of student motivation, engagement, and resilience. We also present a recently developed circular model involving a broad variety of motivating (i.e., need-supportive) and demotivating (i.e., need-thwarting) teaching practices appealing to these three needs. In Part II, we discuss several implications of this circular model, thereby discussing the diverse pathways that lead to student need satisfaction, motivation, and engagement as well as highlighting teachers’ capacity for calibration to deal with uncertainty and change. We conclude that school principals and teachers do well to invest in both students’ and teachers’ psychological need experiences, such that they become skilled in flexibly adjusting themselves to diversity, uncertainty, and change. © 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
This study investigated the effects of teachers’ administrative workloads on their ability to undertake class instruction preparation and feedback on students’ homework. It is often mistakenly thought that teachers conduct administrative work efficiently and effectively. To investigate this misconception this study, using an instrumental variable method, demonstrates that teachers’ administrative workload carries an opportunity cost of instructional activities. Teachers with greater administrative workloads are less likely to spend time on instructional preparation and providing feedback on students’ assignments. The author’s findings are dependent upon whether the school is public or private, and are only significant for public schools. The author’s findings highlight that teachers’ demands for a reduction of their administrative workload to allow them to perform essential instructional duties are justified.
Faculty (N = 205) at regional public universities (RPUs) in the United States were surveyed for self-reports of their primary academic identity (teacher, researcher) and qualitative descriptions of struggles related to their academic identity. Well-being and job satisfaction were examined as outcome measures of identity struggles. Participants were selected from RPUs in Illinois, a state with severe budget challenges, to assess the impact of financial pressures on academic identity at traditionally teaching-focused institutions. Responses were not uniform across faculty, with some reporting few identity struggles and others reporting difficulty managing, lack of institutional support, and feeling that something would need to ‘give’ eventually. Faculty who identified as researchers and who spent most of their time doing research reported the fewest struggles, while researchers who were not able to devote time to research most frequently reported distress. Implications and challenges to faculty work and strains on academic identity at RPUs are discussed.
A developmental perspective on teacher identity and motivation leads us to expect processes of adaption and dynamism that are responsive to context. Critical to our understanding is the consideration that identity is a multidimensional construct in which the personal and social are interwoven. We explore how extant motivational theories offer insights into the nature and correlates of teacher motivation and identity formation including self-efficacy, expectancy-value, achievement goal, and self-determination theories. We propose that these provide lenses that fruitfully highlight aspects of identity development at different points across the lifespan of a teaching career. Drawing from the canvass of lifespan developmental psychology, we propose the SOC (Selection, Optimisation, and Compensation) model of successful ageing as an overarching theoretical lens to provide new insights and a potentially integrative framework, within which diverse theoretical perspectives on teacher motivation and identity development could be coherently further explored.
Schools in many countries have been subject to a continuing series of externally-initiated reforms over the last two decades. These reforms are widely reported to have resulted in increased bureaucracy, scope and intensity of work, external surveillance, and changes in the nature of teachers’ professional orientation to work, which consequently challenged existing professional identities to comply with ‘performativity’ agendas. Given the challenges and pressure to respond to these increasingly functionalist expectations and demands, in this chapter, I examine associations between teachers’ agency, emotional wellbeing, working contexts, and resilience, as key components of their sense of professional identity, professionalism, and perceived effectiveness.
The choice of college majors is an important career decision for many contemporary youths. Based on self-determination theory, we propose that the self-determined motivation underlying youths’ choice of major is critical for their optimal functioning, performance and well-being in college. We also propose that the effects of a self-determined choice of major is mediated by the self-determined motivation to study and that the self-determined choice of major is predicted by autonomy-supportive parenting and individual differences in autonomous functioning. Structural equation modeling results obtained from college students in two studies (N = 146 and 479) showed that (1) these hypotheses were supported using both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs and subjective and objective measures; (2) these structural relationships received support and were invariant for both Chinese and American students; (3) Chinese students scored significantly lower on various variables related to self-determination than American students; and (4) several direct predictive effects were also identified beyond the model we proposed. We suggest that future studies could improve the psychometric quality of measurements, conduct in-depth cross-cultural comparisons, and expand the current model with additional variables. Implications for parenting and career counseling practices are also discussed.
Two main reasons for dropping out of higher education are making an erroneous educational choice (an identity commitment) and lack of motivation. This study examined whether identity formation and motivation among prospective students at the moment of choosing a bachelor's program (N=8723) predicted their academic achievement in their first year. Participants were divided into four students' achievement groups (i.e., “successful dropouts”, “successful stayers”, “unsuccessful stayers”, and “unsuccessful dropouts”). We examined whether identity and motivation separately predicted academic achievement, whether identity and motivation dimensions
could be combined into new distinct profiles, and whether these new profiles predicted academic achievement. Results indicated that motivation was associated with academic achievement, whereas identity was not. Furthermore, five new combined motivation-identity profiles were identified (i.e. “moderately positive”, “amotivated”, “moderately negative”, “autonomously achieved”, and “controlled & troubled diffused”), which predicted academic achievement. In general, the moderately positive profile was positively and both the “amotivated” and “controlled & troubled diffused” profiles were negatively associated with academic achievement, respectively.
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The present study investigates how teachers’ motivation relates to burnout and engagement, teaching style and need satisfaction at work. A total of 584 secondary teachers completed validated questionnaires. Four profiles were retained in the cluster analysis. Results showed that teachers who were high on autonomous motivation displayed the most optimal pattern of outcomes, whereas teachers who were high on amotivation showed the opposite pattern. Teachers who were high on controlled motivation were engaged in their jobs, yet they had a greater risk of burnout and of establishing an ego climate. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.
Teaching development programmes in Higher Education aim for a learning-centred teaching culture. In a shift from teaching-centeredness to learning-centeredness the teacher’s role changes from a bearer of knowledge to a facilitator of learning. This, in turn, influences the academic’s professional identity as teacher. Insights into this process of identity development are, however, scarce. The present study explores changes in the teacher identity of eight academics enrolled in a teaching development programme by means of episodic interviews and teaching portfolio entries. Data was thematically analysed. The eleven recurring topics were clustered into thematic fields reflecting three phases of the identity development of academic teachers: ‘Taking on the teacher role’, ‘Settling into the teacher role’ and ‘Finding a new role as a teacher’. This study suggests that the process of identity development is highly significant for the individual academic and influences teaching development programmes’ impact on the quality of teaching.
Research on teachers’ professional identity integrates many constructs that are treated independently in most cases. This study described the associations between components of teacher professional identity and their association with teachers’ general pedagogical beliefs. Secondary teachers (n = 236) completed a survey about several components of their identity (self-efficacy beliefs, motivation to become a teacher, affective commitment and perceived type of expertise) and general pedagogical beliefs (constructivist and direct transmission). Multidimensional scaling revealed that the components could be mapped on two dimensions: form of motivation and degree of subject specificity. The resulting map revealed four meaningful groups of components. Furthermore, whereas direct transmission general pedagogical beliefs were found to be strongly tied to an identity grounded in the subject taught, constructivist beliefs were independent of identity components. This study provides new insight into the structure of teacher professional identity and its relevance for teaching.
This study tested a conceptual model based on self-determination theory to examine how university faculty members’ motivation for teaching predicts their utilization of teaching best practices, and explored if faculty at various higher education institution types are differentially motivated for teaching. Data from a national online survey of 1671 faculty from 19 universities was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Support for the overall model showed faculty autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively predicted autonomous motivation (intrinsic, identified), but not controlled motivation (introjected, external). Autonomous motivation, in turn, predicted greater incorporation of effective teaching strategies, namely instructional clarity, higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and collaborative learning. There were no differences found across faculty at Doctoral, Master's, and Bachelor's institutions in terms of autonomous motivation mean levels, nor for the predictive effects of autonomous motivation on teaching best practices. The findings have implications for the faculty motivation and teaching research literatures, as well as for faculty development initiatives aimed at improving teaching effectiveness.
We introduce the concept of teachers' intrinsic vs. extrinsic instructional goals and demonstrate its contribution to teachers' classroom motivating styles using independent samples across four studies. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that the more teachers adopted intrinsic instructional goals the more they would rely on an autonomy-supportive motivating style, and the more they adopted extrinsic instructional goals the more they would rely on a controlling motivating style. Because no measure existed to assess intrinsic vs. extrinsic instructional goals, we created the new 4-scale, 16-item Teacher Goals Questionnaire (TGQ) in Study 1, using a pool of 72 candidate items and data from 212 fulltime K-12 teachers. In Study 2, we demonstrated the TGQ's construct and factorial validity by sampling 149 fulltime K-12 teachers. In Study 3, we tested our hypothesized model by sampling 147 fulltime K-12 teachers who reported their instructional goals on the TGQ and their motivating styles on two separate measures. Structural equation modeling analyses confirmed the hypothesized model. In Study 4, we replicated the findings from Study 3, using a multilevel sample (92 secondary teachers, 2749 students), a longitudinal research design, and student measures of teachers' motivating styles. The discussion focuses on instructional goals as key antecedents of teachers' classroom motivating styles.
The present study examined the role of vocational identity processes and motivational beliefs among 216 undergraduates’ level of student engagement (affective, behavioural and cognitive). Through regression analysis, in-depth career exploration was found to be positively related to the student engagement variables, while career self-doubt emerged as a negative predictor. Identification with commitment was also found to be positively associated with students’ affective and cognitive engagement, but not behavioural engagement. Furthermore, students’ perceived value in academic activities played a critical role in mediating these relationships. Despite the significant associations, other vocational identity processes (in-breadth career exploration, commitment making and career flexibility) and motivational beliefs (competence beliefs and perceived cost) failed to act as predictors and mediators, respectively, as hypothesised. Nonetheless, the current findings demonstrate the importance of vocational identity development in undergraduate students’ learning, and suggest a need for more identity interventions or career counselling services in college and pre-university contexts.
Developing a strong sense of a professional identity as a teacher may be crucial to the well-being of new members of the profession. This article describes the initial results of a research project examining the development of professional identity in new teachers undertaken with recent graduates from teacher education programmes in two universities in Quebec. Twenty-one volunteers were interviewed after graduation and before beginning their first jobs about their image of themselves as professionals and their projections of a future identity in relation to a vision of an ideal teacher. Analysis of these interviews reveals that new teachers are tentative in their declarations about their professional identity and uncertain as to how they will reach their ideals. The results of the study provide insights into the increasing importance of the exploration and development of professional identity within teacher education programmes.
