Investigation of the relationship between teachers' professional motivation and their levels of finding their jobs meaningful

In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between the professional motivation of teachers working in public schools in the central district of Kastamonu province in the 2020-2021 academic year and their level of finding their job meaningful. 300 teachers selected from the universe by random sampling method constitute the sample of the research. In the research, the perceptions of the teachers on the subject were evaluated with the questionnaires applied. Relational screening model was determined in the research. In this direction, the "Teacher Motivation Scale" prepared by Uçar (2015) as the independent variable and the "Meaningful Work for Educational Organizations" scale developed by Göcen and Terzi (2018) were used as the dependent variable in collecting the research data. Frequency and percentage analysis, t-Test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Tukey Multiple Comparison Tests, Pearson Product Moments Correlation Coefficient (r) and Simple Linear Regression Analysis were used in order to solve sub-problems in the analysis of the data. As a result of the research; According to the opinions of teachers working in public schools, no significant difference was found between teachers' professional motivations and gender, age, education level, marital status, professional field, professional seniority and tenure at school. According to the perceptions of the teachers, there was no significant difference between the level of teachers' finding their job meaningful and gender, age, education level, marital status, professional field and tenure at school. However, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the participants with professional seniority of 6-10 years and 11-15 years and the participants with professional seniority between 16-20 years. A positive and significant relationship was found between teacher motivation and teachers' finding their work meaningful. In addition, it has been observed that teacher motivation is a positive and significant predictor of teachers' levels of finding their jobs meaningful.