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IJEM
27,4 Motivation among public primary
school teachers in Mauritius
Ashley Keshwar Seebaluck and Trisha Devi Seegum
446 Department of Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius
1. Introduction
Successful learning at school is the foundation of lifelong learning by individuals and
the
globalised, knowledge society of the future (Skilbeck and Connell, 2004, p. 7).
Therefore, it is very important that every pupil at school is well set on this path and
primary teachers are the ones who have the pivotal role to impart knowledge to
students. According to
Ariffin (1998), teachers who are appointed today are not only the leaders of the next
generation, but they also act as role models to students. He also added that if teachers
are happy, motivated and satisfied with their teaching profession, then greater
student
achievement will definitely result. Teachers decisions and attitudes are likely to affect
the welfare and prospects of a country including the lives of the countrys future
generation.
Job satisfaction and motivation of teachers have been the focus of substantial
research over the past years. According to Bogler (2001, quoted in Hughes, 2006, p.
2),
job satisfaction is important in terms of teacher retention, but is also related to
International Journal of Educational teacher empowerment, school culture, quality work environment, and student
Management
Vol. 27 No. 4, achievement. Teacher motivation, on the other hand, is usually demonstrated by
2013 pp. 446-464 the behaviour of
r Emerald Group Publishing
Limited the teacher (Olajide, 2000, cited in Tella et al., 2007). Low teacher motivation not only
0951-354X
DOI 10.1108/09513541311316359
has adverse effects on student motivation and performance, but also on the attainment
of high standards of education. Attracting and retaining teachers are also major
concerns to educational leaders in order to ensure that there is no shortage of teachers
in the future (Perie and Baker, 1997).
As White (2000, p.
61, cited by
DeBruyne, 2001)
points out, teaching
in todays schools can
be rewarding, but it
can also be filled with
stress, frustration and
little time
to take care of oneself . This is so because the role of teachers has changed Motivation
dramatically over the past decades. Primary teachers are required to play several
roles during the course of the school day including those that parents are supposed to among teachers
play, for instance, provide moral education (DeBruyne, 2001; McCormick, 1997). in Mauritius
Some teachers assume their responsibilities with no difficulty (Hakanen et al., 2006,
cited by Sass et al., 2011) while to others, the teaching profession seems like an
endless battle (Ariffin, 1998). High expectations from the various stakeholders of
education, including students, parents,
447
school and society at large and the various challenges that teachers have to face worsen
the situation (Lumsden, 1998, quoted in DeBruyne, 2001). With regards to this,
teachers
feel frustrated and depressed and they also experience a feeling of lack of
motivation and dissatisfaction (DeBruyne, 2001). Consequently, some teachers
either quit the teaching profession for greener pastures while others consider this
situation as part of their fate (DeBruyne, 2001). They remain in the teaching
profession, but however, they
demonstrate a lack of interest in their job, which can ultimately have adverse effects
on student performance (DeBruyne, 2001). High rate of absenteeism among teachers
also results which is a serious impediment to the delivery of education and learning
(Tella
et al., 2007). There are numerous factors which account for why primary school
teachers are not satisfied with their job and what causes them to lack motivation. As
per Norton and Kelly (1997) and Shann (1998), they include low salary, no
promotion, lack of
communication, poor working environments and many
more.
Since teachers occupy a fundamental position in the primary education
system, therefore, it is of upmost importance to cater for the needs of primary
teachers and improve certain aspects of the teaching profession. Hence, the purpose
of this paper to
explore and analyse the critical factors affecting the level of motivation of primary
school teachers in Mauritius a small developing island in the Indian Ocean whereby
education is highly regarded by the society of Mauritius (Ministry of Education,
Culture and Human
Resources, 2009). The Mauritian education system, with well-defined mission, vision
and objectives has witnessed progressive evolution over past decades, thus making it
become a vital element in the economic and social development of the country
(Ministry of
Education, Culture and Human Resources,
2009).
5. Results
Respondents were asked to express their opinions with regard to one or more
statements based on a five-point rating scale for all questions of section C, whereby
1 to a very low extent/strongly disagree/poor and 5 to a very high
extent/ strongly agree/excellent. The first two questions of section C of the
survey
questionnaire provided the required answers to the first research question, that is, the
factors affecting the motivational level of public primary school teachers.
For question 1, respondents were asked to state to what extent the following ten
factors listed in Table II motivated them in their teaching profession by circling a
number on the five-item Likert scale which best correspondents to their opinion.
For the purpose of an in-depth analysis of the statements, descriptive statistics,
that is mean and standard deviation of the respondents scores have been used. The
higher the value of the mean, the more motivating the factor is in nature.
Therefore,
Motivation
among teachers
in Mauritius
455
Statements Meana SD
(a) Promising career prospects, i.e. chances of getting promoted in the near future 2.20 1.158
(b) Potential for improving your professional skills 3.13 1.008
(c) An adequate salary 2.69 1.286
(d) Attractive incentives and fringe benefits 2.58 1.362 Table II.
a
Note: 1 to a very low extent, 2 to a low extent, 3 neutral, 4 to a high extent, 5 to a very Mean score for factors
(e) Ability to communicate with pupils and impart knowledge 4.12 0.785
high extent affecting motivation
(f ) Develop social relationships 3.79 0.938
(g) The status associated with teaching and getting the deserved respect from
students and members of society 3.11 1.132
based
(h) Senseon the responses and
of accomplishment obtained
pride youfrom the successful
get from sample of 201 respondents, it can be
student
deduced
performance that promising career prospects motivate primary teachers the least 4.30 since0.885
this
factor yieldedtowards
(i) Progression the lowest mean
the goals you score
set for(2.20) compared to other factors that
yourself 3.66were 0.881
used
to assess
( j) The motivation.
responsibilities Likewise,
associated the sense of accomplishment and3.39
with teaching pride 1.048
that
primary teachers mainly get from the successful performance of their pupils was
found to be biggest motivator since this factor has yielded the highest mean score
(4.30) among all other factors.
Furthermore, question 2 of section C of the questionnaire assessed the inner drive
that makes teachers adopt a goal-directed behaviour and hence be motivated. Public
primary school teachers of Mauritius were asked to what extent they agreed or
disagreed with the following statement: I sometimes feel it is a waste of time to try to
do my best as a teacher.
Based on the results presented on the pie chart (Figure 1), it is alarming to note that
there is a small minority (5.5 per cent) of primary teachers who strongly agreed that it
is actually a waste of time to try to do their best as a teacher and 20.4 per cent of them
simply agreed with that statement. However, the majority of respondents (31.8 per
cent) disagreed with this statement whereas 26.4 per cent of them strongly disagreed.
On analysing the mean score of the responses given for question 2, which is 2.47, it is
pleasing to observe that the trend is towards a disagreement with this statement. Thus,
it can be deduced that a large majority of primary teachers are willing to deploy extra
efforts for the academic success of their pupils.
5.5% Strongly agree
26.4%
20.4% Agree
Neutral
z
Figure 1.
Disagree
Rating of the statement
I sometimes feel it is a
Strongly disagree
15.9% waste of time to try to do
my best as a teacher
31.8%
IJEM Another fundamental question in the survey questionnaire is question 3 of section C
27,4 which accounts for the determination of the current level of motivation among public
primary school teachers. The latter were asked to rate their level of motivation at
work.
Based on the pie chart results (Figure 2), the findings demonstrate that more than
half of the sample population (52.2 per cent) claimed that their motivational level is
456 good while only a small minority of the respondents (2.5 per cent) acknowledged that
their motivational level is poor. It can be deduced that the overall motivational level
of
primary teachers can be rated as good.
The purpose of question 4 of section C of the questionnaire was not only formulated
to determine the overall satisfaction of teachers in relation with their job, but also to
demonstrate whether there is any significant relationship between teacher motivation
and job satisfaction through hypothesis testing. Thus, the mean and standard
deviation of the respondents scores were computed and based on the mean score of
3.67 which indicates satisfaction, it can be deduced that despite teachers needs are not
completely met, they are still satisfied with their job.
As far as the testing of the hypotheses is concerned, the purpose of the hypotheses
presented below consisted of showing possible relationships between level of
motivation at work and overall degree of job satisfaction:
Past research has shown that both job satisfaction and motivation are inextricably
linked to one another and to derive a relationship between these two concepts is quite
complex (Dinham and Scott, 1997). Therefore, the hypothesis was developed to
investigate whether there was a relationship between motivation and job satisfaction.
Subsequently, data pertaining to the overall motivational level and overall degree of
job satisfaction of respondents were cross-tabulated as shown in Table III.
In order to find out if there is a relationship between level of motivation and job
2
satisfaction, a w -test was carried out as shown in Table IV. Pallant (2005, p. 290)
explains that if you have a 2 by 2 table, then you should use the value in the second
row (Continuity correction). presented in the column labelled Asymp. Sig. (2 sided) to
reject/accept the null hypothesis.
As the asymptotic significance (two-sided) for continuity correction is 0.071 in
Table IV, it can be concluded that the relationship is insignificant and the null
hypothesis (H0) should not be rejected. Hence, it can be deduced that there is
no significant
Excellent
52.2%
17.4% Very good
Good
Satisfactory
Figure 2. 6.0%
Level of motivation 2.5% Poor
at work
21.9%
Level of motivation at work
Motivation
Good or better Satisfactory or worse Total among teachers
in Mauritius
Degree of job satisfaction
Satisfied or better
Count 105 41 146
Expected count 110.4 35.6 146.0 457
% within degree of job satisfaction 71.9 28.1 100.0
% within level of motivation at work 69.1 83.7 72.6
% of total 52.2 20.4 72.6
Neutral or worse
Count 47 8 55
Expected count 41.6 13.4 55.0
% within degree of job satisfaction 85.5 14.5 100.0
% within level of motivation at work 30.9 16.3 27.4
% of total 23.4 4.0 27.4 Table III.
Total Cross-tabulation showing
Count 152 49 201 possible relationship
Expected count 152.0 49.0 201.0 between level of
% within degree of job satisfaction 75.6 24.4 100.0 motivation at work and
% within level of motivation at work 100.0 100.0 100.0 overall degree of job
% of total 75.6 24.4 100.0 satisfaction
2 a
Pearson w 3.971 1 0.046
Continuity correctionb 3.271 1 0.071
Likelihood ratio 4.280 1 0.039
Fishers exact test 0.064 0.032
Linear-by-linear 3.951 1 0.047
association
No. of valid cases 201
Notes: 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count o5. The minimum expected count is 13.41. bComputed
a
Table IV.
only for a 2 2 table w2-tests