The relationship between teachers' structural empowerment and professional motivation

This research aims to determine whether structural empowerment of teachers predicts their professional motivation or not. This research is quantitative in the correlational survey model. The target population of the research consists of teachers working in primary, secondary and high schools in Merkez district of Kirsehir province in the 2022-2023 academic year. The sample of the study was determined by using the cluster sampling method. The data collection tools used to obtain the research data consist of three parts, respectively, "Personal Information Form", "Teachers' Structural Empowerment Scale" and "Professional Motivation Scale". The scales are 5-point Likert type and consist of five sub-dimensions. Statistics program was used to analyze the data collected in the research. In the research, t-test was conducted to determine whether the structural empowerment and professional motivation of teachers differ according to the variables of gender and educational background; one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether it differs according to the variables of age, professional seniority, branch and school level that teachers work. Post-Hoc Bonferroni test was used to test between which groups the difference obtained in ANOVA was. In the research, Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the structural empowerment of teachers and their professional motivation. Regression analysis technique was used to determine the level of predicting the professional motivation of teachers' structural empowerment. According to the findings obtained from the analysis results, the teachers stated that their structural empowerment and professional motivation levels were high. While the structural empowerment levels of teachers did not differ according to their gender and educational background, it was concluded that professional motivation was higher in female teachers than male teachers. Teachers with a professional seniority of 1-10 years were more likely to agree with the structural empowerment of teachers in schools where they work compared to teachers with a seniority of 21 and above. Professional motivation of teachers did not differ according to their professional seniority. Structural empowerment and professional motivation levels of teachers did not differ according to the variable of age. A moderately significant positive correlation was found between the structural empowerment of teachers and their professional motivation. Structural empowerment of teachers is a significant predictor of their professional motivation. Structural empowerment of teachers explains 17% of professional motivation. Keywords: Professional motivation, structural empowerment, teacher, teacher motivation