Cypriot secondary school teachers’ professional life phases: a research-informed view of career long motivation

Abstract

This paper presents the professional life phases of Cypriot secondary school teachers and discusses the influences underlying their motivation. A comparison is established between teachers within each phase by extracting information from three sources of influence: teachers’ characteristics, as drawn from the literature; policy factors; and four motivators (recognition, inspection, personal life and experience). These motivators constitute the essence of the perspectives of twelve teachers and six headteachers, participants in a qualitative research study conducted in six urban lyceums1 in Cyprus through semi-structured interviewing. A secondary school teacher’s professional life is divided into five professional life phases: 0–3, 4–10, 11–20, 21–27, and 28–30 years of teaching experience. Emergent from the educational system of Cyprus, this division adds to the extant literature on teachers’ professional life phases. These characteristics, policy factors, and motivators build a research-informed view of teachers’ career -long motivation.