This research study reveals foreign language (FL) teachers’ voices on factors affecting their teaching profession. Under the conceptual framework of Rosenholtz’s (1991) theory of teacher workplace commitment, the researchers found that the teachers themselves, the nature of students, teacher evaluation, university facilities, and the organization’s goals influence teachers’ teaching profession.
This research project aims to gain more understanding of factors that Thai university foreign language (FL) teachers believed impacted their profession. Rosenholtz's (1991) theory of teacher workplace commitment was employed to create a set of semi-structured interview questions. Sixteen FL teachers (n=16, female=10, male=6) at Academia University (a pseudonym) volunteered to give interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and later analyzed with Strauss and Corbin's (1990) open and axial coding techniques. The analyzed data allowed the researchers to categorize teachers' responses into five categories. They were: (1) the teachers themselves, (2) the nature of students, (3) teacher evaluation, (4) university facilities, and (5) the organization's goals. The result of this research not only sheds some light on the direction of educational organizations' policies and programs on teacher professional development, but more importantly strengthens teachers' voices.
