The motivational profiles of teachers: Teachers' preferences for extrinsic, intrinsic, and moral motivators

The current national crisis in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers has heightened the necessity to develop effective teacher incentive and professional development plans. Cognitive motivation theories have identified intrinsic and moral drives associated with high work performance, yet most teacher incentive plans take a one-dimensional approach, focusing on extrinsic rewards. This two-part study uses a multi-dimensional framework of motivation to create a motivational profile of teachers: their preferences for extrinsic, intrinsic, and moral motivators. Study 1 consists of the design and validation of an attitude survey to assess the strength and direction of the three dependent variables, teachers' preferences for extrinsic, intrinsic, and moral motivators. Study 2 tests the research hypotheses. The three independent variables in the causal-comparative design were teacher age, career stage, and school achievement level. The survey was administered to elementary teachers in a stratified random school sample. Data were analyzed using a special variation of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to identify significant interactions of the variables. The study results showed that teachers have a significantly higher preference for moral motivators when compared to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, and this profile persisted across all groups. However, while the direction of teacher's preferences was similar, the motivation levels differed significantly according to age and career stage. Significant interactions of motivation preference and school achievement level suggest the need for further research, and addressing the differences in motivation level among age and career stage groups can promote teachers' professional growth across the career span.