The Impact Of Teacher Work Motivation On Students’ Academic Performance In Postcolonial Ghana

Teacher work motivation and job satisfaction have been a heated topic over the past decade because educators and researchers consider them as integral factors to enhance teacher performances for school effectiveness.Demotivated and dissatisfied teachers suffer from stress and burnout,and are projected to leave the profession and produce low performances which subsequently affect the outcomes of students.The abysmal performance of Ghanaian Senior High School(SHS)students in the West African Secondary School Certificate Exam(WASSCE)over the years has been attributed to the decreased work motivation and job satisfaction of teachers in the country.There are limited empirical studies that link teacher work motivation and job satisfaction,and very few address teacher and school-level factors at the same time.In the Ghanaian context,per the knowledge of the researcher and extensive literature search,there is no study that links teacher work motivation and job satisfaction.Studies carried on teacher motivation or job satisfaction separately also utilize small samples.Hence,this affects the generalization of the findings of the study.The study is motivated by concerns about high teacher turnover and attrition,the cries of teacher unions on governmental initiatives/policies affecting teachers,and the poor performance of students at the secondary school level.The mixed-method applied the Self-Determination theory and a postcolonial framework to problematize the working conditions of teachers affecting their teaching and the academic outcomes of students.Data were gleaned from randomly sampled 286 core subject teachers and the WASSCE test scores of 20,643 students were obtained using thirty(30)“category B”SHS.Qualitative interviews(n = 30)using a phenomenological approach was conducted to give teachers a voice regarding their work motivation and job satisfaction.Quantitative data were analyzed using a structural equation modelling technique(AMOS),while content analysis was performed for the gathered interviews(NVivo 11).The findings of the study revealed that work motivation and job satisfaction are interrelated concepts but different.Teachers recorded low work motivation and job satisfaction.Students’ tests scores were moderately adequate.Teacher work motivation had a significant positive effect on teacher job satisfaction and students’ academic performance.Job satisfaction significantly mediated the relationship between work motivation and students’ academic performance.The interviews revealed that teachers lamented on their working conditions in relation to professional development,leadership opportunities,lack of promotion,insufficient pay,and poor retirement benefit.The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.It is recommended that policymakers in education address issues involving the working conditions of teachers to improve student outcomes and curb the increasing teacher strike in the country.Future research should replicate the studies by involving elective subject teachers across different categories of schools and teachers in more than one region of the country.