Enriching EFL Teachers’ Professional Experiences and Motivation: An Ecological Perspective

Teaching is often described as a profession in crisis (Hiver & Dörnyei, 2015). In Spain, Betoret (2016, p. 535) found that the workload, lack of rewards, school authority guidelines, classroom learning environment and relationship with colleagues “accounted for a greater portion of variance in teacher anxiety, job satisfaction and teacher motivation”. Teachers who are anxious, dissatisfied with their job and demotivated are likely to affect students through processes of ‘contagion’ (Frenzel & Stephens, 2013) and therefore, ways of helping teachers to generate and protect their motivation should be found. Possible solutions to EFL teachers’ negative professional experiences and demotivation will be examined by means of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecosystems theory (1979, 1994). The novel application of this theory to teachers as individuals who are influenced by contexts and interrelated processes, emphasizes the importance of taking into account not only events that occur in the immediate classroom setting but also out-of-class contexts which strongly influence teachers and their motivation. In-depth online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews with interview prompts - an innovative data collection instrument - and classroom observations were used in secondary state schools in Spain to examine in-service teachers’ (de)motivation and identify solutions to enhance teachers’ motivation. Improvements in the classroom context and changes needed in the teaching profession in its entirety were proposed by participants. A more disciplinary teaching approach and empathizing with students were identified as solutions to teachers’ motivational problems. Fostering changes, such as reducing the number of students in the classroom, might benefit teachers, their motivation and their performance and could, as a result, have a positive effect on students and their learning of a foreign language. The need for emotional training to increase teachers’ motivational awareness and emotional intelligence was also addressed.