Teacher Motivation for Staying in the Profession: Insights from Vietnam

Understanding what motivates teachers to stay is crucial for ensuring the continuity and commitment of the teaching workforce. Recognizing its importance, this study examined the factors influencing teachers’ motivation to remain in the teaching workforce. Descriptive statistics revealed that teacher respondents in Vietnam were highly motivated to stay. They also perceived the motivational factors – sense of purpose and fulfillment, interest and passion for teaching, sense of growth and development, sense of being respected and valued, school environment, well-being, salary, incentives and benefits, and government laws and policies -as relevant to their context. Inferential statistics unveiled that all of these factors are associated with motivation to stay. Length of teaching, hours spent teaching, travel time, and grade levels taught were also correlated with motivation. Teachers reported varying levels of motivation based on the frequency of salary increases, engagement in nonteaching-related tasks, access to instructional resources and school facilities, highest educational attainment, engagement in graduate studies, promotion history, and frequency. A predictive model for teacher motivation to stay was also developed. Policy recommendations were proposed based on the research findings.