Harmonious passion as an enabler of motivation for the teaching profession: Insights from a small-scale qualitative study

Abstract

Current statistics in the UK and internationally continue to indicate concern with teacher retention. This small-scale qualitative study explores how harmonious passion can contribute to continued teacher motivation, adopting the duality of passion model. Two teachers participated in a semi-structured interview, within a primary school in South-East England. Harmonious passion enabled teachers to maintain motivation due to the increase in job satisfaction and wellbeing. Results suggested that a lack of teacher autonomy and pressures placed upon teachers by government and school policies resulted in a declination of harmonious passion and subsequently lowered teacher motivation.