An investigation of teachers' feeling of zest for work

In the current research, it has been aimed at putting the phenomenon of zest for work forward through the interviews conducted with teachers and thus identifying factors that generate their zest for work. For this purpose, phenomenology design which is one of the qualitative research techniques has been chosen as the method. Maximum diversification in purposive sampling has been used with the aim of collecting various and rich data as the sampling method in the research. Accordingly, face to face or online interviews have been done with 30 teachers of different subjects working in different types of high schools and having different length of service. In the interviews, a semi-structured form that includes fifteen questions has been used. Content analysis has been conducted fort he collected data. Interview questions have been checked by three experts in the field. Intercoder reliability and member checking methods have been applied, through which validity and reliability have been approved. According to the findings of the research, teacher can feel zest for work when they have seen their students' positive change with their success and employment. Being respected and valued, being able to act freely and take the initiative can generate the zest for work of teachers. When teachers are ready for the classes they will teach, and they have had more experiences at work, they can have more successful professional lives. This situation is able to increase the zest for work. When teachers are aware of the students' interests towards the classes and their participation, they can feel the zest for work. Zest for work can be felt when teachers perform more roles and can see attractive sides of their jobs. Teachers can feel the zest for work when they see their job meaningful and valuable. The fact that school management is objective and student-centred has been evaluated as a situation that increases zest for work of the teachers. Positive school climate has been evaluated as a term that provides and increases teachers' zest for work. Teachers have clearly stated that the term has been important to feel the zest for work revealing the increasing effect of positive school climate on zest for work.