Goals for teaching: Towards a framework for examining motivation of graduating teachers

Abstract

Teacher motivation is an important field of research, especially in countries where teacher retention and quality have become prominent concerns. This paper presents a conceptual framework for understanding the stage appropriate goals for teaching of graduating teacher education students. Generated from empirical data and grounded in established literature (Ford, 1992; Ford & Nichols, 1987) the framework shows that both within-person and person-environment consequences inform goals for teaching. This framework makes a unique contribution to the field of teacher motivation, providing a tool to explore the content of teachers’ goals, thus providing further insights into teacher motivation.