Understanding male kindergarten teachers’ motivation for teaching in mainland China: a case study

ABSTRACT

While research on teacher motivation has proliferated in the past decades, little attention has been paid to kindergarten teachers’ motivation for teaching, male kindergarten teachers’ motivation in particular. This case study examines five male kindergarten teachers’ motivation to teach in Chinese kindergartens in the light of possible selves theory. The data analysis reveals that the ‘ideal self’ (i.e. of professional kindergarten teachers) plays a pivotal role in maintaining the five male kindergarten teachers’ motivation for teaching. Specifically, this study indicates that the male teachers’ ‘ideal self’ motivated them to join the profession and to retain their teaching motivation when there were discrepancies among their ‘actual’, ‘ought’ and ‘ideal’ selves. The findings of this study have several implications for early childhood teacher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher motivation
• possible selves theory
• kindergarten teacher