Teacher motivation to teach and to remain teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students

The purpose of this study is to identify teachers' initial motivation to select teaching as a profession and to explore the factors that contribute to their desire to remain teaching. Specifically identified are factors that influence the intent to continue teaching culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in high-need schools. A mixed methods approach was used to explore teachers' motives and the supportive factors that influenced their entry and commitment to remain in the teaching profession. An integrated sociocultural and phenomenological framework was used (Creswell, 2007; Maustaskas, 1994; Seidman, 2006). A quantitative descriptive investigation designed as an exploratory, cross-sectional survey study was conducted and a correlation coefficient analysis was used to examine the hypotheses of the study in addition to a qualitative study with the intent to provide empirical data documenting motivations to teach and the desire to continue working with CLD student populations in high-need schools. The qualitative approach used open-ended in-depth interviewing informed by phenomenological assumptions (Muastaskas, 1994; Seidman, 2006). A total of 175 compatible novice teachers with five or less than five years of teaching experience responded to the Motivation Orientation Teacher Survey (MOTS) of these10 teachers were interviewed. All teacher participants in this study were selected from a convenience sample. The research study explored the constructs of (1) personal motivation, (2) administrative support, and (3) induction support to capture novice teachers' realities regarding the impact of their sociocultural context (school environment) on their decisions to remain teaching. Investigative results add to a better understanding of novice teachers' initial reasons for selecting teaching as a profession and their intent to remain teaching. This study revealed three factors that influenced novice teachers' motivation to teach culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students: intrinsic, extrinsic and altruistic. Across five thematic clusters emerged from the in-depth three series interviews, the capacity to capture minority teachers' motives for teaching and remaining in high-need schools with culturally and linguistically diverse students, where they believe they can give back to the community, was unique to this study. In general novice teachers attributed their motivation to enter and to remain teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students to: (1) to their commitment to help CLD students realize and achieve their own potential, (2) to give back to the community, and (3) to promote the love for content (e.g. mathematics and science). Also, findings indicated that novice teachers place value and perceive administrative and induction support as important. Novice teacher' perceptions, regarding the importance of informal and formal mentoring/collegiality and campus level principals are regarded as important and very positive within the schools' sociocultural context.