Work motivation among Chinese inclusive education teachers : its antecedents, outcomes, and changes

Abstract

With more and more students with disabilities being educated in inclusive education contexts, inclusive education teachers (IETs) face huge challenges and display different responses in their work. Work motivation has been recognized as an important psychological resource for understanding IETs’ work-related behaviors and their work outcomes. Based on the self-determination theory, the present research examined 1) the antecedents (i.e., teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education, teacher self-efficacy, school climate, and perceived principals’ transformational leadership) of work motivation, 2) the outcomes (i.e., job crafting and organizational commitment) of work motivation, 3) the mediating role of work motivation in the influence of the four aforementioned antecedents on the two outcomes, and 4) the changes in work motivation within a six-month interval among Chinese IETs.

This research comprises a pilot study and a main study. In the pilot study (N = 534), seven inventories were validated and the relationships among the seven key research variables were preliminarily examined among IETs in Beijing primary schools. Adopting an explanatory sequential design, the main study consists of a quantitative research phase followed by a qualitative one. The quantitative phase is a two-wave longitudinal study (N time 1 = 762, N time 2 = 666) that examined the statistically predictive relationships among the key variables and explored the changes in work motivation within a six-month interval. Based on the results obtained from the quantitative data, 15 IETs were interviewed in the qualitative phase to further understand why work motivation changed.

The results of the two-wave longitudinal study supported the research hypotheses. First, the behavioral dimension of teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education, self-efficacy in managing behaviors, instructional innovation climate, and perceived principals’ transformational leadership positively predicted IETs’ work motivation. Second, IETs’ autonomous motivation was the positive predictor of job crafting and adaptive organizational commitments, while their controlled motivation was the positive predictor of economic commitment. Third, work motivation mediated the effects of teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education, teacher self-efficacy, school climate, and perceived principals’ transformational leadership on job crafting and organizational commitment, with autonomous motivation being the major mediator. Fourth, within a six-month interval, IETs’ controlled motivation increased while their autonomous motivation decreased. Results from the interviews indicated four major reasons for the increase in controlled motivation: the drive of emotional factors, the requirements of job tasks, the support of the environment, and the attainment of tangible or intangible rewards. Furthermore, three major reasons for the decrease in autonomous motivation were detected: the unsatisfied psychological needs, the loss of benefits, and the lack of structural resources.

This research has both theoretical contributions and practical implications. It provides empirical evidence for the self-determination theory in the Chinese inclusive educational context and enriches the existing literature on IETs’ work motivation and on the other six variables concerned. Furthermore, this research provides practical implications for IETs, principals, policymakers, special education professionals, and parents of students with disabilities on how to enhance IETs’ work motivation to optimize their adaptive work outcomes. Limitations of this research and recommendations for future studies are discussed.