Fewer students apply for and finish the teacher programs in Sweden, and manyteachers leave their job. Swedish schools are in need of more teachers, but theteaching profession is today portrayed as unattractive. This research aims toinvestigate what factors that motivate some students to become teachers and whatfactors that motivate some teachers, ESL teachers in first hand, to work as teachers,mainly in secondary schools in Malmoe. Three secondary teachers who teach ESL inMalmoe were interviewed and expressed their thoughts about the positive aspects ofthe teaching job, why they wanted to become and why they work as ESL teachers, andwhat goals they have in relation to their profession. The research showed that the ESLteachers teach because they feel passionate about the subject they teach and becausethey enjoy working with children and teenagers. They find the job fun and rewarding,and think that it is challenging, especially when working in a city like Malmoe. Itseems as teachers often put the pupils first and do not focus on external rewards, suchas salary. Teacher motivation has an impact on student motivation and it is thereforeimportant that teachers remain motivated within their profession.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine how participants perceived their principal's leadership style and whether differences existed in their perceptions based on the demographic variables of age, gender, experience, education attainment and ethnicity. Transformational leaders were considered influential, change agents who motivated teachers to work collaboratively as a team to achieve defined goals. These leaders developed personal relationships and focused on increasing teachers' basic needs and developing them into leaders. On the other hand, transactional leaders were considered the status quo. These leaders developed impersonal relationships and motivated teachers according to their personal self-interest. They focused on social and economic exchanges, using contingent rewards to reinforce positive behaviors and administered punishment to reform negative behaviors. One-hundred and thirteen participants from six elementary schools participated in this study. The Multi-Leadership Questionnaire was used to collect data. Cronbach alpha was used to establish internal reliability consistency of the instrument. The data was analyzed using mean scores, percentages, chi-square, t-test and ANOVA. The research findings indicated that perception scores at both school levels were higher for transformational leadership than transactional leadership. According to the mean score interpretation (Table 2) and the participant's mean scores, 92.9% of participants perceived their principal as fairly often a transformational leader and 7.1% perceived their principal as frequently a transformational leader. Ironically, 100% of participants perceived their principal as sometimes a transactional leader. The research findings indicated that overall, teachers at both levels perceived their principal as fairly often a transformational leader and sometimes a transactional leader. Based on the demographic findings, an ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in teachers' perceptions of their principal's transformational leadership style based on years of experience. Participants with more years of experience perceived their principal with significant higher mean scores than those with fewer years of experience. Recommendations included: (a) conducting further research to determine the impact that principals' leadership style have on student performance from a national perspective, (b) conducting a Longitudinal Research study to determine the impact that leadership styles have on student performance, and (c) exploring leadership styles extensively to identify the various leadership traits exhibited by both public and private elementary school principals.

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This study is a longitudinal, qualitative, interpretive inquiry into the work motivation of four novice EFL teachers at public secondary schools in Japan. I employed constructivism as my philosophical framework and narrative inquiry as my primary methodological tool, and attempted to capture the four young teachers’ changing motivation as embedded in their life histories and teaching trajectories over their first two years of teaching. The narratives of the four participants, constructed mainly from the multiple interviews, revealed various kinds of tensions in their transitions from student to teacher. Such tensions included a chasm between classroom realities and their beliefs, conflicts between collegiality and individuality, and also tensions that derived from the inherent nature of teaching such as uncertainty, extensive range of duties, and reflection on the self. In varying degrees and frequencies, all these tensions damaged the participants’ occupational motivation, demonstrating the vulnerable side of novice teachers’ motivation. The same narratives, however, also displayed a completely opposite feature of young teachers’ motivation: resilience. In the midst of the adverse circumstances, the participants continued to engage in the profession, sometimes restoring their motivation through interactions with students and colleagues, and other times returning to their original goals and ambitions. Among various sources of the sturdiness of their motivation, what was unique to novice teachers was a sense of discovery (Huberman, 1993). The four teachers’ discoveries included not only learning about teaching techniques or social norms but also new understandings of themselves as a teacher, and as a person. Although the process of negotiating and reshaping their self-concepts (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009; Markus & Nurius, 1986) disturbed their emotions and damaged their motivation temporarily, all four participants exhibited robustness of their self-concepts and motivation when they rediscovered their motivational goals at a higher level of self-awareness. The four young teachers’ narratives invite authorities such as policy makers, teacher educators, school administrators, and researchers to seek ways to support the growth of young teachers more effectively. In my conclusion, I suggest several measures to reduce the amount of tension and pressure to ease novice teachers’ entry into secondary school teaching. / CITE/Language Arts

This study explores the motivations, perceptions, and imagery of beginning teachers in Lebanon. It foregrounds the importance of ‘images’ as potentially useful conceptual tools for understanding the developing identities of beginning teachers. The research consists of in-depth, semi-structured interviews in which student-teachers are encouraged to reflect on their own and other people’s views and perceptions about teaching. The thesis places the students-teachers’ personal portraits of teaching within broader cultural-historical representations of teachers in Lebanon and examines how the student-teachers deal with such representations while still in training. The core research questions focus on the participants’ motivations as well as the underlying cultural, social, and political factors that influence their views and perceptions about teaching. The research questions were designed to explore the various images of teachers and teaching that the students draw on in their personal portraits. Biographical information as well as students’ experiences at the time of training were explored for this purpose. The findings suggest that student-teachers’ developing identities emerge through their identification with competing images and representations of teaching and teachers. These images cut across various contexts, temporalities, and imagined settings in the student-teacher portraits, linking personal, educational and professional experiences. Many of the images synthesized large amounts of experiences and knowledge about teaching and contained gendered, religious, affective and interpersonal dimensions. Finally, the thesis offers a new way of conceptualizing images. This study hopes to help teacher education programs gain greater insight into beginning teachers’ thinking, motivations and developing identities.

There is a lack of understanding of how teachers in Early Care and Education (ECE) work to overcome occupational stress and burnout. Many investigators have documented the stress and burnout that often result in high levels of attrition in ECE teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree a teacher's protective factors help in mitigating the experiences of stress and burnout often associated with working as a teacher in the field of ECE. Guided by Werner's theory of resilience, which highlights the importance of protective factors as a means of overcoming risk factors, the research questions examined strategies that help promote resilience and mitigate stress and burnout among preschool teachers. The methodology was a qualitative, case study research design. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 ECE teachers and analyzed using thematic analysis, which identified 3 categories of protective factors: family supports, workplace supports, and positive individual characteristics. Additionally, the study revealed that teachers did utilize particular protective factor strategies to help mitigate risk, stress, and burnout, such as family and friends serving as a positive support system, faith, prayer, and belief in a higher being. A recommendation is that teachers participate in an eLearning course developed to introduce protective factors teachers can use to increase levels of resilience. Positive social change may result from this study because it advocates for the support, promotion, and attention to the mental health and well-being of teachers in ECE. This eLearning course will promote teacher well-being, which can have a direct positive impact on the care of young children and the effective facilitation of curriculum and instructions within school systems.

Kazakhstan has used the Soviet system of education since its independence in 1990. Researchers have noted shortfalls in education reform efforts and documented factors of teachers' resistance to new pedagogies. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore local teachers' perceptions of the new pedagogies in the context of understanding the local-international teacher program in Agrenov international schools (AIS). Three research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of factors for adoption of new pedagogies in an educationally transforming school using the motivational and systems approaches and emotional intelligence conceptual frameworks. A conceptual framework constructed from three theories of motivation, systems approach, and emotional intelligence was used. The target participants were local teachers who had worked in state schools for a minimum of 3 years and for 2 years in AIS, and who had worked with national teachers. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with a random sample of 10 local veteran teachers from the target population. Thematic coding produced 4 themes: school, teacher, time, and political factors with 15 subthemes which can be used as areas of focus in researching, analyzing, and enhancing adoption of new pedagogies. The results of the study can be used to enhance teacher adoption of educational reform efforts locally in Agrenov international school Centre City and the AISes, and internationally.

La investigación trata sobre determinados factores contextuales que influyen en la motivación, percepciones y expectativas de futuros docentes que están siendo formados en una Institución de Formación de Maestros (Recinto Juan Vicente Mosco), situada en la provincia de S. Pedro de Macorís (República Dominicana). Tras analizar y describir determinadas condiciones contextuales e históricas, y realizar una revisión de literatura especializada, la investigación, con un estudio de campo en el que se han aplicado cuestionarios y entrevistas, ha recabado las perspectivas de los sujetos informantes sobre las variables objeto de estudio y sus relaciones. El tratamiento, análisis e interpretación de los datos ha permitido extraer conclusiones relevantes para la formación docente y la política social y educativa del país dominicano, proponiendo para ello una serie de recomendaciones empírica y teóricamente fundadas. / The research has focused some of the historical and contextual conditions influencing prospective teachers motivation, perceptions and expectations related to the teaching profession in a institution for Teachers Education (Recinto Juan Vicente Mosco), placed at the province of the S. Pedro de Macorís (República Dominicana). After analyzing and describing some of the relevant historical and contextual conditions and undertaking a revision of the specialized literature, the inquiry, through a field study where questionnaires and interviews have been applied, has focused the prospective teacher perspectives about relevant variables and their relationship. Data analysis and interpretation allowed to get relevant conclusions for teacher education so as for the social and education policy in the country, proposing empirical and theoretical founded recommendations.

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