How school culture shapes teachers' motivational trajectories from amotivation to intrinsic motivation: A self-determination theory-based examination

Abstract

A positive school culture is one of the important factors influencing teacher motivation, professional commitment, and instructional success. However, there is limited empirical evidence that has focused on the influence of school culture on teachers’ motivation trajectory from amotivation to intrinsic motivation through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), especially within the government schools in Pakistan. The present study aims to analyze the impact of school culture on teachers' motivational trajectory by providing satisfaction of the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which facilitate the internalization of motivation through external, introjected, and identified regulation and eventually leads to intrinsic motivation. The study was based on the positivist research paradigm with a deductive research approach. Data were collected from 400 secondary school teachers in government schools of Karachi using stratified random sampling. For this purpose, the structural model of the study was tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results suggest that a positive school culture plays a key role in facilitating teachers’ psychological needs satisfaction and helps in the transition from controlled to autonomous motivation. Identified regulation proved to be a crucial step in the process of motivation internalization whereas autonomy satisfaction showed itself as a strongest predictor of intrinsic motivation. The research contributes to the understanding of the applicability of Self-Determination Theory and shows the importance of school culture in helping teachers develop their motivation. It also provides recommendations for educational policy-makers and educational leaders on how to enhance teachers’ motivation and teaching skills.