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Professional Demotivating Factors Among High School, Institute, and University EFL Teachers: A Comparative Study
Factores profesionales desmotivadores entre docentes de inglés en colegios, institutos y universidades: un estudio comparativo
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v25n1.96423Keywords:
demotivating factors, English as a foreign language teachers, job insecurity, language learning institutes, high schools (en)colegios, docentes de inglés, factores desmotivadores, inestabilidad laboral, institutos de idiomas (es)
This mixed-methods study investigated and compared the professional demotivating factors for EFL teachers in three contexts: high schools, language institutes, and universities. Consequently, a validated questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed to gather data from 189 Iranian EFL teachers. The results indicated that the most prominent demotivating factors were financial issues, students’ demotivation, facilities and course books, and neglecting teachers for educational decision-making. However, financial issues and facilities and course books were less demotivating for university teachers. During the qualitative phase, it was also revealed that supervisors’ feedback and attitudes, relationships with colleagues, and preferential treatments negatively affect EFL teachers’ motivation. Furthermore, unlike high school teachers, language institutes and university EFL teachers perceive job insecurity as incredibly demotivating.
Este estudio de tipo mixto indagó sobre los factores profesionales desmotivadores entre docentes de inglés en tres contextos: colegios, institutos de idiomas y universidades. A 189 docentes de inglés iraníes se les pidió responder un cuestionario validado y entrevistas semi-esctructuradas. Dentro de los factores desmotivadores más prominentes están los de tipo económico, la desmotivación de los estudiantes, las instalaciones educativas, los libros de texto y la falta de inclusión de los docentes en la toma de decisiones educativas. La fase cualitativa, basada en la teoría fundamentada, reveló que las actitudes y la retroalimentación de los supervisores, las relaciones con colegas y los tratos preferenciales pueden incidir negativamente en la motivación de los docentes de inglés.
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1. Karim Sadeghi. (2026). Language teacher motivation in an unequal world: In search of the bigger picture. System, 136, p.103902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2025.103902.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Maryam Honarparvaran, Mohammad Saber Khaghaninejad
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