Motivation of Omani schoolteachers

Oman’s school system is of relatively recent origin, having been developed from the 1970’s and much is expected of Omani schoolteachers. The research reported in this thesis was a comprehensive attempt to explore Omani schoolteachers’ understanding of the term motivation. A mixed methods approach was used, with a large-scale questionnaire survey of 3065 teachers producing a 69% response rate (2112) and yielding results that were subject to further exploration by means of 7 teacher focus-groups (with 53 teachers participating), 21 interviews with individual teachers, and 3 focus-groups with 21 headteachers. The key finding from the research was that the overwhelming majority of Omani schoolteachers participating in the research regard themselves as motivated with the most important motivating factors for them being working with pupils and being productive in society. However, both Omani teachers and headteachers would appreciate a reduction in administration and greater participation in decision-making. Analysis of my findings distinguished four groups of factors that might provide better understanding of motivation of Omani schoolteachers. These four divisions are (1) the main factors that appeared to attract Omanis to teaching profession, (2) the main factors that appeared to contribute to confirm or extend the initial motivation to enter the teaching profession, (3) two factors that appeared to increase the level of motivation of Omani schoolteachers, and (4) the main factors that appeared to contribute in maintaining the level of motivation of Omani schoolteachers, which I term guarantors. The findings from this research should help teacher educators and policy makers in Oman better understand teacher motivation. The research concludes some practical recommendations that might help maintain or enhance teacher motivation and some recommendations for follow-up research. Finally, I hope the research has contributed a little to the ongoing international debate around teacher motivation, from an Omani perspective