Pre-Service Management Teachers Motivation To Teach

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the factors influencing pre-service management

teachers‟ decision to take teaching as a career. The descriptive cross-sectional

survey design was adopted for the study. The total population of pre-service

management teachers involved in the study was 229. The census method was

used to include all the respondents for the study. The FIT-Choice

questionnaire was adapted from Watt and Richardson (2012) for the gathering

of relevant data for the study. The data gathered was analysed with both

descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages, means and standard

deviation) and inferential statistics (independent samples t-test and One-Way

Analysis of Variance-ANOVA). The study found that pre-service

management teachers‟ were motivated by altruistic factors (shaping the future,

enhance social equity), intrinsic factors (prior teaching experience, expert

career, high demand, social contribution) and extrinsic factors (job security,

social status). Their demographic characteristics such as gender, age and prior

teaching experience were not found to significantly influence their decision to

take teaching as a career. The study recommended that the Ghana Education

Service (GES), which is responsible for teacher recruitments in education,

should ensure that teachers are given a better opportunity to enjoy job

security, time for their families, transfers and social equity, which are crucial

for the sustenance of their personal and social utility values. The government

in partnership with Ministry of Education should provide various motivational

packages (job security, increased salaries and improved working conditions)

to sustain the efforts of practicing teachers. Potential teacher employers

should couch their advertisement to reflect these factors.