Determinants of Teachers' Motivation and Their Relationship to Work Commitment

Abstract This study examined the determinants of teachers’ motivation and their relationship to work commitment among public school teachers in Calamba District, Division of Misamis Occidental. Anchored on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the study used a mixed-methods design involving 130 teacher-respondents for the quantitative phase and 20 selected teachers for semi-structured interviews. The quantitative instrument measured motivational determinants in terms of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and extrinsic factors, and work commitment in terms of affective, continuance, and normative commitment. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation were used for the survey data, while qualitative responses were analyzed through thematic procedures. Results showed that teachers reported high levels of motivation across autonomy (M = 2.86), competence (M = 2.86), relatedness (M = 2.84), and extrinsic factors (M = 2.89). Work commitment was also high across affective commitment (M = 2.98), continuance commitment (M = 2.78), and normative commitment (M = 3.05). Pearson correlation revealed a moderate, positive, and statistically significant relationship between teachers’ motivational factors and work commitment (r = .469, p = .001). Qualitative findings identified financial literacy, salary, and teacher maturity as contributing factors that shape work commitment. The study concludes that teachers’ motivation and work commitment are mutually reinforcing and recommends strengthening autonomy-supportive leadership, professional development, recognition systems, fiscal literacy support, and career-development opportunities to sustain teacher commitment.