The Importance of an Autonomy-Supportive Workplace and Engaged Students for Language Teachers’ Self-Determination and Engagement

Abstract

Teachers often face pressures both from above and from below as they adhere to their supervisors’ requirements and work with students who may be disengaged from the learning process. These interpersonal influences are argued to thwart instructors’ teaching motivation and result in a more controlled teaching experience and a more controlling teaching style, whereas supportive supervisors and engaged learners could promote a self-determined motivational orientation and greater teaching engagement. Regression analyses of survey responses collected from 63 English language instructors in Canada showed that supportive supervisors helped satisfy English language teachers’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn promoted self-determined motivation and teaching engagement. Student disengagement undermined the satisfaction of instructors’ needs and led to more controlled teaching motivation, but student engagement enhanced teachers’ self-determined motivation and/or teaching engagement. These results underscore the importance of supervisory attentiveness to instructors’ psychological needs. As well, they suggest that whereas teachers might be inspired by engaged students, they might also need to find strategies to cope with the potentially negative impact of disaffected students on their own teaching motivation and engagement.