Teacher Motivation and Teacher Professional Learning Across Different Career Stages: A two-phase qualitative study in the Dubai private sector

This study aims to understand and explore in-depth what motivates teachers in the Dubai private sector to engage in teacher professional learning across different career cycles and within the authentic setting of the school. The study foregrounds teacher motivation as an essential dimension in effective teacher professional learning activities. The last decade has witnessed an increase in the research on teacher motivation due to its evidence-proved impact on several education-related factors such as student motivation, teachers’ practice, their sustainable work commitment, self-fulfillment, and well-being. This study draws on the motivation theory of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which has been widely used in the field of education. SDT postulates that people’s performance is optimised when the social context of their work meets their inherent needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The conceptual framework of this study draws on the inter-relatedness of the four areas of teacher professional learning, teacher career stages, teacher professional capital and Self-Determination Theory.

The study follows a qualitative research design with an interpretivist approach. The research design I adapted is A two-phase qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 25 teachers in two different private schools in Dubai. I collected the data using semi-structured open-ended interview questions where I interviewed 25 teachers at two private schools in Dubai. I analysed the data using reflexive thematic analysis with hybrid-deductive-inductive reasoning approach.

The findings of the study revealed that functional collaborative cultures, effective middle leaders, and students are the main motivation for teachers to keep growing their professional knowledge across different teacher career stages. The study also shows that the continuously evaluative culture of Dubai privatised sector, represented in inspection, demotivates teachers and diminishes their autonomy regarding their professional learning and their teaching practice.Finally, the study provides several implications for policy and practice such as incorporating teachers’ voice in their professional learning concerning the content, structure, and delivery of CPD activities to ensure increased teacher motivation and optimised teacher performance. Moreover, on the policy level, differentiated teacher motivation approaches that are based on teacher career stage and cultural differences need to be initiated. Furthermore, middle leaders’ support structures and selection criteria need to be reinforced due to their significant influence on teacher motivation across different career stage. The study contributes to the research and professional knowledge on teacher motivation in the under-researched region of Dubai’s private sector by shedding light on the issue from teachers’ perspectives and their lived realities.