This research aims at exploring the role of teacher motivation in teacher professional learning across different career phases within the context of Dubai private sector. Additionally, this research study aims at filling the research gap in this region through in-depth understandings of what motivate teachers to engage in their own professional learning across their career phases within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT).

Dubai represents a unique education policy context that hosts a highly diverse education system. There are more than 193 private schools that host 183 nationalities and offer 17 different curricula.

This huge private sector is annually inspected by Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). Almost more than 90% of Dubai expat students, more than 50% of Emirati students attend private schools. Expatriates are not allowed to enroll children in public schools. Another unique feature is that 100% of male teachers are expatriates and more than 60% are female expatriates (Ridge 2010). To conclude, the region of Dubai is under-researched with respect to teacher motivation, compared to the corpus of western literature on teacher motivation and teacher professional learning. Hence, this study aims to contribute to the knowledge and research on teacher motivation within the authentic setting of private schools in Dubai and from teachers’ own perspectives and lived experiences.

The quality of an education system is primarily determined by the quality of its teachers            (Mourshed and Barber, 2007;  GMR2013). Accordingly, developing sustainable teachers’ professional learning, building teachers’ capacities, and improving instruction can be effective ways to improving students’ learning experiences and supporting them while reaching their fullest potential.

 Day (1994) states that professional learning activities become more effective when they are teacher-focused and not training –focused, as well as, contextualized in the workplace of teachers because context adds to the value of teachers’ new learning. In this respect, the context provides the authentic setting where teachers interact with each other formally and informally to construct collaboratively their gained knowledge and experiences (Day and Gu,2007).

The conceptual framework of my study makes connections between Self-Determination Theory, Professional Capital, and teacher professional learning across different career phases. 

SDT suggests that there are two main types of motivation are autonomous motivation and controlling motivation. In this proposition, the context, and the social factors where people operate could become either motivators or inhibitors for promoting autonomy and the drive for self-fulfillment and professional growth. The more the work environment or context is rich in its psychological nutrients, the more autonomously motivated people become. The first nutrient is competence or having the ability and the power to show effectiveness, and demonstrate expertise, knowledge, and skills. The second nutrient is autonomy. This is when people feel they have the ability to make their own choices volitionally within the context they work. The third and last nutrient is relatedness. Relatedness is the feeling individuals have when they are socially secure in a group. It is this feeling of belonging to a community where support and care are reciprocal among all those who belong to the community.

Linking this to my study, SDT lays significant emphasis on the role of context. In my study context plays a major role starting with the main research question. This question aims to explore and understand teacher motivation to engage in school-based professional learning across different career stages. Context also include the wider context of Dubai private school sector, and how that could affect the smaller context of schools. Another linking point is the research design. This study follows an interpretivist case study approach where context is inseparable from the studied issue or phenomenon.

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Case study design was the most suitable research design for my study considering my research aims, research questions, world view and the underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions of the study. To elaborate, I wanted to explore and understand the case of teachers in the private sector of Dubai schools with reference to teacher motivation and teacher engagement in teacher professional learning within the authentic setting of their schools. To achieve this purpose, I was interested to give teachers the opportunity to share their experiences and provide their input and insights based on their lived experiences. The ontological and epistemological underpinnings of my study are that reality is socially shaped and defined by individuals in a specific context. Reality, therefore, is subjective, where individuals interpret and construct their own meaning (Mack,2010; Braun &Clarke, 2013). Applying this to my study, teachers’ perspectives and lived experiences within their school contexts, regarding their motivation and their teacher professional learning, construct and shape their perspectives on this issue. Furthermore, these ontological and epistemological assumptions lend themselves to the research design, research question and aim , and my position in my research. Semi-structured open-ended interviews were used as opposed to structured or un-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews combine two important features for my research purpose represented in the list of the issues or topics to be covered and the flexibility to ask follow- up questions that could illuminate or lead to an untrodden area of interest or relevance. Moreover, open-ended questions provided a wide margin for participants to share their views, experiences, and stories. This helped me to make better meanings and form understandings and analysis of the information gathered. Furthermore, the interview questions reflected the main domains of my conceptual framework and represented a break-down of the main study’s research questions as well as sub-questions. Purposive sampling strategy was employed to interview 25 teachers and one school principal at two different private schools in Dubai. The sampling criteria were career stage and subject matter.

Findings of my study suggest that teachers are motivated to engage in their own professional learning across different career stages by three main elements: collaborative cultures, middle leaders, and students. Further findings of the study indicate that the culture of school inspection in Dubai –negatively impacts teacher motivation. Additionally, this study emphasises the crucial importance of relational trust, collegiality, and communication as cross-cutting themes and main constituents of functional collaborative cultures inside the school setting. Finally, the study sheds light on cultural differences and how they could obstruct venues of communication, collegiality, and relational trust particularly in culturally diverse settings such as the privatised sector of Dubai schools. To conclude, my study gives teachers voice to share their constructed realities and lived experiences on teacher motivation and teacher professional learning across different teaching career stages in the authentic context of private schools in Dubai. Furthermore, this study aims to fill this gap in the extant literature on teacher motivation in relation to teacher engagement in teacher professional learning across different career stages. Moreover, the region of Dubai is under-researched with respect to teacher motivation.

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