Engagement would be influenced by factors surrounded including job resources, personal factors, and others such as student behavior (Adekola, 2010). The researcher grouped three main categories of factors that influence teachers’ engagement: (1) individual factors, (2) organizational factors, and (3) overall situation as Figure 4.1 showed below.
Figure 4.1. List of factors affecting teachers’ engagement.
Individual Factors
It was believed that constructs and conditions applied by individuals were fundamental to the development of work engagement (Wollard & Shuck, 2011). The following factors: (1) motivation for career, (2) personality, and (3) family were discussed.
Motivation for career
According to Adekola (2010), motivation for career included extrinsic, intrinsic and Organizational
altruistic motives. In this study, among three motives above, altruistic motives had more impacts on teachers’ engagement. Participants held the beliefs that they want to help students, who have difficulty in learning English, to know how to adopt English as a tool rather than being afraid of English. Tangible rewards were the thing they never asked for, what they expect was merely the feedback from students. There were two kinds of feedback: (1) direct feedback and (2) indirect feedback. The interaction during the class was immediate feedback teachers would receive, which helped them to modify the way they teach and observed students’
learning situation. The indirect feedback referred to such as sharing from graduated students or having a talk with graduated students. As Kayla said,
You will feel what you devote is more than what you receive when you are teaching students. Nevertheless, when those graduated students come back and share their life with you and tell you that what you have said change their value. At that time, you will a kind of feeling that everything is worthwhile (B06_b10_01).
Elle also raised similar viewpoint where she said,
Although feedbacks from students are important during the class, yet I did not expect for anything for reciprocation. You will not expect students to enter good university because that is their own decisions. But when graduated students, like you, come back, I am very happy. Or just hear that you have good work. That’s enough (B02_b10_01).
Both direct and indirect feedbacks are intangible, but with influential effect on teachers’
engagement, and become the motivation for teachers to moving forward.
Teachers devoted themselves to teaching and regarded it as their responsibility and duty.
Being a teacher, it fulfilled their career expectations to help others. As Fannie stated,
It somehow reach (my expectation) since my intention is to affect others. Indeed, when
graduated students mentioned that what you have said or done triggered their thinking.
These influences includes merely their English competence but their direction toward learning (B03_b09_01).
And Greta mentioned “When you notices students have learned from your English classes or they did not think English is as difficult as they have regarded before and progressed. This is what I expected at the very beginning of career path, so it reaches my expectation (A04_b09_01).” As well as Lucia said,
I love teaching and I like people. Teaching is the job that fulfill my needs. The reason why I love teaching is that students are the most potential groups because when you guide them and give them direction, they will become better and better. Since they are still learning (A06_b01_02).
Fulfilled intrinsic motivation also enhanced teachers’ engagement that teachers looked upon their career with extraordinary meanings toward the society. The meaningfulness of teaching was immeasurable, yet it built the root of country and future talents.
Extrinsic motivation meant to salary, pension and psychological benefits. Most of participants themselves put less emphasis on financial issue; instead, their parents regard it as important criteria when choosing a job. Details were discussed in “Family” section.
Personality
Teachers, themselves influenced their engagement because their beliefs and values toward their career as educators.
Although the research did not have participants do the personality test, their talking and their expression had delivered their passion. Through the interviews, the researcher found that most of participants were full of passion to their work that they regard teaching English as a way to share their knowledge with students; meanwhile, they learned from students and
improved their own English competency in order to explore new activities to help students learning during games, videos, or any other designed workshops. One participant said that
“when learning a language, you have to amuse yourself before you can amuse others (B04_b05_01).” It expressed how teachers indulged in their work wholeheartedly.
Besides, participants ask for nothing tangible for return. Merely, they would felt glad if their students have progress in their English. As Elle stated,
You will not expect them to get to better university because it is their own choice. But they have to come to supplementary course if needed since I will expect their improvement in English (B02_b10_02).
Same idea as Melissa said,
Students know what you have done for them, and they will be willing to memorize the vocabulary. You give and they will respond to you (A07_b10_01).
Participants hold positive way of thinking and believe in their career values, which strengthened their work engagement in teaching.
Family
Kong (2009) stated teachers with different marital status varied their engagement; for example, according to his analysis unmarried teachers were more engaged than those married.
In this study, the researcher supposed that family influence the degree of engagement among teachers. Married teachers took their husband, wife, or children into account when it comes to the balance of career and life. Most of time, they tend to leave school on time in order to take children home and prepare dinner for the family. As Lucia stated,
Because I have kid, I will finish my work efficiently at school unless there is an accidental situation. It happens often when I am a home-room teacher; otherwise, I will finish my
work and focus on my children when I am back to home (A06_b08_01).
One participant even said that “my husband did not want to put too much effort on students when I was out of duty (A03_b07_02).” It signaled out dilemma married teachers would meet between the balance of family and students, especially the home-room teacher.
In fact, family played an important role not only in the variation of engagement, but also in determination of taking teaching as a career. For example, Haley said,
I am dreamed to be a teacher so I took the educational courses in the university. But I have thought to be a tour guide or flight attendant since I am good at English. However, my parents are more conservative so that they did not think those two jobs are stable. So, being a teacher somehow is to reach their expectations (A05_b01_02).
Or, some chose to become a teacher because one or both of their parents were teachers, which led them to get familiar with the life and career path of teacher.
Family exercised influence over the individual either in choosing career or in variation of engagement. It was a stereotype that people regard teaching as a stable career with sufficient income especially suitable for females. Career was a long-term or life-long issue, self-determination reinforced the motivation; otherwise, teaching was merely a task there was no expectations for things more over than just teaching. Although teachers were not thoroughly responsible for students’ accomplishment, they influenced their attitude, and their value.
Organizational Factors
Within school, there were people, equipment, and policy involved. These were correlated to the variation of teachers’ engagement. And, according to the analysis, the researcher categorized into three groups: (1) student, (2) job demands, and (3) job resources, which were discussed in details in the following paragraphs.
Student
Teachers met different students every year and they had to adjust their teaching methods based on new students in. Therefore, student was possible to be important factor toward teachers’ engagement as former researchers indicated that disruptive pupil behaviors caused teachers to be stressful (Hakanen et al., 2006). In this category, the researcher discussed including teacher-student relationship, students’ behavior both during the class and after the class, and students’ English competency.
Teacher-student relationship.
In the 21th century, students preferred being friends with teachers to being followers after teachers. As Elle mentioned,
Students could not accept you talk to them as supervisors, they rejected the top-down relationship. They tended to be friends with teachers. However, being friends brought pros and cons. It shortened the distance between students and teachers, but it also loosened their disciplines toward teacher (B02_b05_04).
Most of participants get along with their students as friends after classes, and more strict when teaching. From viewpoints of Jocelyn, “The courses could be interesting but I would not regard students as friends during the classes; instead, they still needed to follow the rules (B05_b05_01).”
Although students were main role at school, they were meant to learn knowledge and cultivate their attitude from teachers. Therefore, teachers were navigators lead them explore knowledge within the universal, understand rules in the world, and consider what they want to be in the future. On the other hand, the changed relationship influenced some teachers for feeling not receive respects; nevertheless, it made waves in teachers’ emotion but not their attitude toward teaching.
Students’ behaviors.
The interaction or feedback during the class influenced the engagement of teacher. Most of teacher did not feel angry; instead, they would introspect themselves first and then they would attempt to find out the solutions in order to help students concentrated during the classes rather than scolding student. As Charlotte mentioned,
You will feel frustrated why they do not have any feedback though you have already put a lot of effort in preparation, especially I just here. I overestimated their maturity, their competency and their age. This made me frustrated but I will change my teaching and think what they need actually (A02_b02_01).
Aside from feedback, other behavior such as falling a sleep during the classes influenced teachers. Diana cared about students’ behaviors that she would mind if students slept during the classes. Same as Elle mentioned, “I cannot stay that students sleep during the classes. It impacts me a lot on my teaching. If only a few students, I would wake them up (B02_b02_04).
The interaction was two-sided that students were more active when the course was interesting. On the other hand, teachers were motivated by feedback from students, which encouraged teachers to come up with activities. If not put an eye on the change between teachers and students, the interaction will become vicious circle. Often, teachers would ask students’ questions or sometimes give the stage to students to understand their learning condition and to activate the classes. Teachers tried more ways to trigger their interests because students now were not able to concentrate for long time when comparing with students in 4-5 years ago.
When students lacked concentration, it would influence students’ learning and teachers’
teaching. Bringing about new teaching skills and methods become an issue for teachers and the education in Taiwan. The future study may focus on solving the interaction obstacles between teachers and students in order to enhance both teachers’ engagement and students’ engagement.
Students’ English competency.
Since the 12-compulsory education policy was implemented, students enrolled for senior high schools by multiple-phased entrance program. It changed the composition of students, and brought challenges as well.
A situation occurred frequently than before that students did not get into the school where they supposed to be. Because students had no idea what they could take as reference for ranking their list for high schools, students who got high score in the Comprehensive Assessment Program looked down upon themselves that they ranked too low. On the other hand, there was a kind of students with confidence in themselves even if they did not do well in the Comprehensive Assessment Program, they ranked higher than where they supposed to be originally. Under this situation, students’ in Applied English Department (AED) differed. As Elle stated,
The 12-compulsory education policy did have great impact on us. On account of different entrance programs such as featured recruitment, and free entrance, it expanded the competence gap among students. Some classes left around 20 students. Students who dropped felt under pressure since they could not catch up with other students in classes even we modify the materials (B02_b03_01).
Jocelyn also proposed similar statement,
In recently, students were much more diverse so that you need to take more efforts to reach what you expect. Before, AED students were quite balanced in listening, speaking, reading and writing. But now, it was uneven that some of them lack of listening, and some lack of reading, which requested more time for improvement (B05_10_01).
The gap among students’ English competency did cause a dilemma for teachers to arrange courses. They needed to modify their teaching method, activities more often than before in
order to fulfill the needs of most of students. No matter how hard they try, a small group of students would be sacrificed, which was one of the greatest challenges for teachers now. As Kayla said, “It is sometimes inevitable to sacrifice some students. But for compensation, I will have them do more practices after classes (B06_b03_03).” Despite the differences among students, teachers did not regard it as a factor to influence their engagement. They held their beliefs in teaching and tried to help any students with will to make effort on English.
Job demands (Workload)
Workload was categorized into teach-related, non-teach-related and working hours.
Teach-related included preparation for classes, and design for work sheet and examination. On the other hand, non-teach-related work loading referred to paperwork for teacher evaluation.
Working hours meant to teaching hours, solving problems among students and communicating with students’ parents after school.
Teach-related work.
Teachers were seriously on their responsibilities especially on students’ homework, and practices. Even though time that teachers obtained was limited, they were still willing to spend time correcting students’ homework and designing work sheets since they devoted to helping their students to develop English competency. As teacher Greta said,
Some students were so passive that I had no choice but check their homework. Even if they had peer reviewed during the class, I would spend time scrutinizing again, which I thought would better the effectiveness of class (A04_b02_06).
But why teachers in Applied English Department (AED) were busy with test and work sheets? Below Jocelyn mentioned,
There are few sources available for some subject of Applied English, which takes more time for teachers to design work sheets and test paper. I would wonder that should I
prepare work sheets or do something else to cover since there are many alternatives (B05_b02_05).
When the examination was coming, teachers felt more stressful. Often, teachers have not only classes for AED but also classes for others. Therefore, they needed to one or two more examinations compared with other teacher who did not have classes for AED. Because of complex tasks, it broke out a problem that teachers were unwilling to be in charge of AED. As Jocelyn said,
Some people do not want to be in charge of AED. Once you are teachers in AED, things will become complicated. For example, I will need to design examinations for both AED and other students. It is quite often that I need to design examinations which increases my work loading. Also, AED uses advanced textbook so that I will need more time for preparation and time for discussion after the test (B05_b12_01).
It brought another problem about fairness. If there were fewer teachers were willing to be in charge of AED, burdens fell on the minority of teachers. Work loading was heavy for teachers in AED; therefore, the head of AED was an important coordinator to make everyone feel equally treated.
Non-teach-related work.
Teacher evaluation was regarded as non-teach-related work, or could be the overwhelming burden. Originally, the government implemented the evaluation in order to promote teachers’
vocation, elevate edifying qualities, and increment students’ performances by way of establishing evaluating planes through teachers’ voluntariness (Wang, 2012). However, piles of paper works compressed teachers’ time for classes preparation. As Lucia described as follows,
The evaluation is really bad that you should strongly attacked in your thesis. The
evaluation overemphasized paper works, and it neglected the core of education is human, is students. The overemphasis of paper works cut off time for preparation, which really does not make any sense (A06_b02_06).
And Greta has the consensus about teacher evaluation that she said,
According to the evaluation, you need to provide many paper works, which means you are a good teacher. In fact, if you put too much efforts to the evaluation, you don’t have time preparing for classes and the evaluation is not directly related to teaching. Things in evaluation are so trivial that will decrease time for preparation (A04_b02_02).
The other thing that should be discussed in the evaluation was the contents. Teachers were asked to record the flow of the classes operation, including what they prepare, how they prepare, and the video recorded during the classes. All of these things accounted for most of teachers’
precious time, and those recorded paper works were failed to be duplicated to another classes even it was the same course. As Kayla stated,
To me, the evaluation is a burden. The classroom climate is active. It differs because of the occasion, time, and the group of student. Even if the same course, and the same contents, you might need to adjust your reflection and teaching methods based students’
feedback and interaction. The variation of teaching is high. If you want to transform it into paper works and that is a burden for teachers (B06_b06_03).
It has been proscribed to use the result of evaluation as reference for teachers’
performances. Nevertheless, results were still applied by school administrators caused unnecessary workload increasing. Lucia criticized,
The evaluation is nonsense, garbage. Teachers hold the same attitude toward students what really differ is the way they teach based on the difference between classes, which the
evaluation is failed to measure. The evaluation focuses on differentiated instruction, but there is no such a need to do so because teachers do it every day. It should aim at eliminating the external interference (A06_b02_11).
The evaluation had been omitted its original meaningfulness. A teacher done a good evaluation did not refer to a good qualified teacher, vice versa. There remained a gap between scholars and the first-line teachers of what should be evaluated.
Working hours.
Teachers were required to pay attention to students’ conditions either at school or after school especially for tutors. They needed to solve problems among students, which sometimes interrupted their work, diminish time for class preparation. Understanding students’ condition helped teacher to get better along with students but if it was required to take records to meet
Teachers were required to pay attention to students’ conditions either at school or after school especially for tutors. They needed to solve problems among students, which sometimes interrupted their work, diminish time for class preparation. Understanding students’ condition helped teacher to get better along with students but if it was required to take records to meet