Ali Roohani - Shahrekord University
khadijeh Dayeri - Shahrekord University

Although research on motivation has received considerable attention in different educational areas, little attempt has been made to explore the role of teachers’ motivation in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting. In this light, the present study aimed to (a) identify the motivational profiles in a sample of 115 Iranian EFL teachers to uncover their motivation to teach, and (b) examine the associations between their motivational profiles and their demographic variables. The participants, who were selected through convenience sampling, were asked to fill out the Demographic and Motivation to Teach Questionnaires (MTQ). First, three motivational profiles were identified through cluster analysis: Low, Moderate, and High groups. Next, a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with a follow-up univariate analysis (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey comparison tests were used to examine the differences among the three clusters on the four types of motivation. Finally, in order to examine the associations between demographic variables and three motivational clusters, Chi-square tests were used. Results indicated that there were statistically significant differences among the three clusters on all the combined motivational variables (p = .000). Additionally, the results of the Chi-square tests revealed that there were significant differences between cluster membership and demographic variables for years of experience (p = .020 and place of work (p = .020). Findings would have implications for EFL teachers, practitioners, and educational policy makers to take into account teachers’ types of motivation and their associated demographic issues in order to encourage interventions and strategies which help nurture and support autonomously motivated teachers and, consequently, promote the EFL teaching and learning.

EFL teachers, self-determination theory, motivational profiles, cluster analysis, demographic variable