Exploring possible influences of teacher commitment and motivation on the teaching profession status in Nigeria through the perceptions of educational administrators

Abstract

Commitment, motivation and teaching profession status are significant subjects in studies about the teaching profession; however, little is known about how these concepts influence one another. This study explores the influences of teacher commitment and motivation on the teaching profession status in Nigeria through the perceptions of twenty-nine educational administrators. The perceptions of these specific educational administrators were collected because they are individuals in positions of power and they play important roles in keeping teachers motivated and committed to the teaching profession as well as influencing the teaching profession status in Nigeria. Hence, the perceptions of eight officials from the Ministry of Education, fifteen school principals and six members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers from three states in Nigeria were collected for this study. As this study adopted a qualitative methodological approach and an interpretivist paradigm, data was collected through in-depth semi structured interviews and was analysed by a combination of thematic and three-component qualitative data analysis. Six themes emerged from the perceptions of educational administrators in this study.
They believed that the teaching profession status has mainly declined; that there is a difference between the status of lecturers and secondary school teachers; and that teacher motivation and commitment is influenced by a passion or calling, the students, a need to transfer knowledge, leadership, untrained teachers, relationship with colleagues, salaries and promotion, the working environment, the attitude of other teachers, and government. This study suggests that these three concepts explored influence one another in a complex way, such as the teaching profession status influences teacher motivation, but also, teacher motivation and commitment influence the profession status in Nigeria. However, the teaching profession status did not appear to influence the commitment of the educational administrators themselves in this study. Several recommendations are discussed for school leaders, school unions, local and National Government, including suggestions for future studies.

Date of Award	21 Dec 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Supervisor	Anthony Thorpe (Director of Studies) & Susana Castro-Kemp (Co-Supervisor)