Teachers' perception of the role of school administrators in motivating the aided high school teachers : a case study of Malappuram educational district, India

Abstract

Teacher motivation is one of the major issues in education by and large, and in educational leadership and practices specifically. A variety of factors are being considered as motives for the teachers, with which the administrators are supposed to recognize and acknowledge their role as teacher motivators. This study investigated the perceptions of the aided high school teachers of Malppuram Educational District, India, on the role of their school administrators in motivating them. The questionnaires pertaining to different motivational dimensions including job satisfaction, career progression, welfare and instruction-related matters were distributed to the teachers of ten aided high schools in the district, which were selected purposively. The statistical techniques which included descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The demographic information, the motivation level, differences among gender and other selected demographic variables in terms of job satisfaction level, the relationship between the job satisfaction level and motivational aspects, and the predictive ability of the variables on job satisfaction were found and analyzed respectively. From 206 questionnaires which were given back to the researcher, it was found that the level of motivation received by the teachers was low and their job satisfaction was moderate. Only two age groups, Group 1 and Group 6, differed in their job satisfaction level while there were no significant statistical differences among any other selected variables namely, gender and academic qualifications. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between the job satisfaction of the teachers and their perceived level of motivation received from the authority. Among the aforementioned three aspects of motivation, the instructional field was the largest contributor to teachers’ job satisfaction followed by the welfare and career progression aspects. The findings suggest that the District level school administrators, as well as the state Ministry of Education should make improvement in realizing their role as teacher motivators at least in the three dimensions on which this study focused on.