Occupational motivation of music teachers as significant factor of social wellbeing

ENDimensions of quality of life have long been associated solely with economic, material wellbeing and income, but nowadays quality of life is regarded as a much more complex construct: quality of life is identifed with social wellbeing of an individual, which embraces the sense of happiness, opportunity for self-realization, feelings, health etc. One of the factors of social wellbeing is occupational motivation. Analysis of occupational motivation in the context of musical education (specifcally, of occupational activities of teachers at music schools) enables the assessment of importance of occupational activities for the sense of completeness of life and wellbeing of a teacher. Research subject – music school teachers’ occupational motivation. Research aim is to reveal the manifestation of music school teachers’ occupational motivation as a factor of social wellbeing. Methodology and results of research into occupational motivation of music teachers. Literature defnes occupational motivation as a driving force inspiring maturity of a personality and professional growth, which is determined by microenvironment, social, psychological, and ethnical factors (Митюкова, 2006). Gage, Berliner (1994) claimed that motivation is like a driver, energy capable of directing pedagogical behaviour. A research into music school teachers’ occupational motivation was carried out in Lithuania during February-April of 2013. The research participants were 367 teachers of instrument disciplines (grand piano, stringed, folk, wind, and percussion instruments, accordion, guitar) who were given anonymous questionnaires. The research reveals that family infuence as a refection of manifestation of a person’s intrinsic motivational factor is one of the important factors of social wellbeing as well. It has been found that work and family is successfully reconciled by 55.6% of all surveyed teachers, and 36.8% are partially successful at that.The material interest scale was chosen to assess the importance of material rewards for music teachers and how they affect occupational motivation. The analysis of the manifestations of material interest in doing teaching job reveals that 56.7% of the respondents do not have material interest in their work. However, the previously analysed statistical relationships between satisfaction with pedagogical activities, competitive environment, and material interest suggest that although material interest is not dominant, it is rather important for teachers. The research has revealed that presently work conditions are viewed as perfect by 21.5%, very good by 19.9%, and good by 34.1% of the respondents. 76.9% of the teachers say their health is great or rather good. The results of the analysis of the factor of occupational motivation having been analysed we can conclude that most of the teachers working at contemporary music schools are happy with the teaching activity they do, which likely helps them to feel completeness of life. Satisfaction is caused by such factors as manifestation of work-friendly and competition-free environment and adequate fnancial reward. These results suggest that in the aspect of satisfaction with professional activity the teachers are professionally motivated. According to the analysis results the conclusions could be drawn: Analysing the attitudes of teachers to educational authoritarianism it has been found that this phenomenon is characteristic to the work of most teachers. Nowadays manifestations of educational authoritarianism in interaction with students are mainly affected by these factors: competitive environment and negative infuence of principal on the process of education. Teacher-student relationship based on educational authoritarianism likely affects occupational motivation of a teacher as well.Attitude of teachers towards parent-teacher collaboration can be regarded as positive (likely making positive infuence on occupational motivation of a teacher as well) bearing in mind the approval by most respondents of parent involvement in the process of education. Manifestation of competitive environment as a possible source of negative infuence on occupational motivation in educational practice has been determined: manifestations of such environment can still be found at a contemporary music school, but, according to the respondents, it is not characteristic to some schools. The research results obtained indicate that the development of competitive environment is mainly infuenced by negative infuence of principal on the process of education and material interest of teachers when working at school. Analysing the features of infuence of principals on the process of education it has been found that slightly more than a half of teachers regard the infuence of principals as positive. It is possible that positive relations with principal is also an important factor for making a teacher feel good and have a sense of completeness of life. Ability of teachers to reconcile family matters and career, rather good physical health, and work conditions satisfying for teachers can be regarded as positive preconditions for occupational motivation, which proves the possibility to treat these factors as making positive infuence on social wellbeing of teachers. Keywords: social wellbeing, music teachers, occupational motivation. [From the publication]

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