Public and Private Universities: Analysis and Evaluation of University Faculty Motivation in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/revistafuentes.2025.27862Keywords:
Teacher motivation, Public university, Private university, Gender differencesAbstract
In Spain there are 50 public and 41 private universities, which reflects a remarkable growth in the private sector since the 1990s, when the number of private universities was 7. The coexistence of public and private universities generates a complex educational landscape, with possible consequences on teacher motivation. The aim of this research is to assess and compare the motivation of teachers in public and private universities in Spain using the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST). Results show that professors at public universities exhibit slightly higher levels of intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and lower levels of amotivation. The most significant differences are found in intrinsic motivation and amotivation. Female professors demonstrate better identified regulation, while older professors show higher levels of amotivation. In conclusion, this study shows differences in the motivation of teachers depending on the work context, which should lead to reflections on which specific strategies to follow in order to face the motivational challenges in each type of institution.
Downloads
References
Abós Catalán, Á. (2016) Validación de una Escala de Motivación por la Enseñanza en el Profesorado de ESO. Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, España. Disponible en: https://zaguan.unizar.es/record/57990/files/TAZ-TFM-2016-204.pdf
Alexandra, U.H.I. (2011) Studying Motivation and Productivity in Academic Research. A Methodological Proposal. Economic Sciences Series, 1, 1311.
Alvariñas-Villaverde, M., Domínguez-Lloria, S., Agrelo-Costas, M. E., y Pino-Juste, M. (2025) ¿Están los futuros maestros académicamente motivados? EDUCAR, 61(1), 213–228. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/educar.2136
Appova, A., y Arbaugh, F. (2018) Teachers’ motivation to learn: Implications for supporting professional growth. Prof. Dev. Educ., 44, 5–21.
Bardach, L., y Klassen, R.M. (2021) Teacher motivation and student outcomes: Searching for the signal. Educ. Psychol., 56, 283–297.
Bishay, A. (1996) Teacher Motivation and Job Satisfaction: A Study Employing the Experience Sampling Method. J. Undergrad. Sci., 3, 147–155.
Borashkyzy, A.U., Amina, A., Eshtayevna, S.Z., Userkhanovna, K.K., Myktybaevna, D., y Issaevna, B.A. (2020) The evaluation of primary school teacher role on research activities. Int. J. Cogn. Res. Sci. Eng. Educ., 8, 29–38.
Börü, N. (2018) The factors affecting teacher-motivation. Int. J. Instr., 11, 761–776.
Byrne, B.M. (2001) Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers: Mahwah, NJ, USA.
Cho, G., Hwang, H., Sarstedt, M., y Ringle, C.M. (2020) Cutoff criteria for overall model fit indexes in generalized structured component analysis. J. Mark. Anal., 8, 189–202.
Choi, S.A. (2014) Measure of English Teacher Motivation: Scale Development and Preliminary Validation. Adv. Sci. Technol. Lett., 59, 85–88.
Cook, D.A., y Artino, A.R. (2016) Motivation to learn: An overview of contemporary theories. Med. Educ., 50, 997–1014.
Cuadras, C.M. (2016) Problemas de Probabilidades y Estadística, Edicions Universitat Barcelona: Barcelona, España, Volumen 1.
Day, J., Hughes, S., Zanders, C., van Zanen, K., y Moos, A. (2021) What Does a Good Teacher Do Now? Crafting Communities of Care. Pedagogy, 21, 389–402.
De Jesus, S.N., y Lens, W. (2005) An Integrated Model for the Study of Teacher Motivation. Appl. Psychol., 54, 119–134.
Deci, E.L., Eghrari, H., Patrick, B.C., y Leone, D.R. (1994) Facilitating Internalization: The Self-Determination Theory Perspective. J. Personal. 1994, 62, 119–142.
Deci, E.L., y Ryan, R.M. (2000) The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior. Psychol. Inq., 11, 227–268.
Eirín-Nemiña, R., Sanmiguel-Rodríguez, A. y Rodríguez, J. (2021) Las razones del cambio de desempeño laboral en los docentes de Educación Física en el contexto gallego. Retos: Nuevas Tendencias en Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación, 41. 153-161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v0i41.81815 .
Emo, W. (2015) Teachers’ motivations for initiating innovations. J. Educ. Chang. , 16, 171–195.
Fernández, L. (2023). Evolución del sistema universitario español: Análisis comparativo entre instituciones públicas y privadas. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 81(285), 203-220.
Fernet, C., Sencal, C., Guay, F., Marsh, H., y Dowson, M. (2008) The Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST). J. Career Assess., 16, 256–279.
Fitria, H., y Suminah, S. (2020) Role of Teachers in Digital Instructional Era. J. Soc. Work Sci. Educ., 1, 70–77.
García, M., Estévez, I., y Rodríguez, S. (2024). Assessment of teacher motivation, psychometric properties of the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST) in Spanish. Education Sciences, 14(3), 212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci1403021234
George, D., y Mallery, P. (2019) IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference, Routledge: New York, NY, USA.
Gomes, D., y Borba, D. (2011) Psicologia das Organizações, do Trabalho e dos Recursos Humanos, Coimbra University Press: Coimbra, Portugal, pp. 243–319.
González Hermoso de Mendoza, A. (2024) Informe de Satisfacción en el Sistema Universitario Español, Cuadernos de pedagogía, ISSN-e 2386-6322, ISSN 0210-0630, Nº 557, 2024.
González-García, H., Fuentes De Frutos, S. y Renobell Santaren, V. (2022). Sex differences across teacher’s motivation, teaching satisfaction, loneliness and affects during COVID-19. Estudios sobre Educación, núm. 42, pp. 217-239 DOI: 10.15581/004.42.010. ISSN: 1578-7001 y ISSN-e: 2386-6292.
Grouzet, F.M.E., Vallerand, R.J., Thill, E.E., y Provencher, P.J. (2004) From Environmental Factors to Outcomes: A Test of an Integrated Motivational Sequence. Motiv. Emot., 28, 331–346.
Haenilah, E.Y., Hariri, H., Ridwan, J., Ochayi, O.A., Maydiantoro, A., y Zainaro, M.A. (2022) Literature Review of Good Teachers: The Attributes and Gaps of Indonesian Teachers as a Profession. Acad. J. Interdiscip. Stud. 2022, 11, 175.
Hein, V., Ries, F., Pires, F., Caune, A., Emeljanovas, A., Ekler, J.H., Emeljanovas, A., y Valantiniene, I. (2012) The Relationship Between Teaching Styles and Motivation to Teach Among Physical Education Teachers. J. Sports Sci. Med., 11, 123–130.
Hernández, R., Fernández-Collado, C., y Baptista, P. (2014) Metodología de la Investigación, McGraw Hill: México Ciudad, México.
Jordan Muiño, F. (2021) Valor de corte de los índices de ajuste en el análisis factorial confirmatorio. Rev. Investig. Psicol. Soc., 7, 66–71.
Katz, I., Assor, A., y Kanat-Maymon, Y. (2008) A projective assessment of autonomous motivation in children: Correlational and experimental evidence. Motiv. Emot., 32, 109–119.
Kline, R.B. (2023) Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling, 3rd ed., The Guilford Press: New York, NY, USA.
Levesque, M., Blais, M.R., y Hess, U. (2004) Motivation, comportements organisationnels discrétionnaires et bien-être en milieu Africain: Quand le devoir oblige? J. Behav. Sci., 36, 321–332.
Lewis, T.F. (2017) Evidence Regarding the Internal Structure: Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Meas. Eval. Couns. Dev., 50, 239–247.
Lobato, C., y Madinabeitia, A. (2011) Perfiles Motivacionales del Profesorado ante la Formación en Metodologías Activas en la Universidad. Form. Univ., 4, 37–48.
López, J. (2009) Un giro copernicano en la enseñanza universitaria: Formación por competencias. Rev. Educ., 356, 279–301.
Lusková, M. y Hudáková, M. (2015) Making the process of university teachers’ motivation more effective. Turk. Online J. Educ. Technol., 1, 308–313.
Madarieta, A. y Sajeva, M. (2024). Cualquier semejanza con la realidad no es coincidencia: notas para los días que corren. Un ejercicio de reflexión sobre el ser docente en la Argentina actual. Artilugio, (10), 56-70.
Madigan, D.J. y Kim, L.E. (2021) Towards an understanding of teacher attrition: A meta-analysis of burnout, job satisfaction, and teachers’ intentions to quit. Teach. Teach. Educ., 105, 103–425.
McNeish, D.J., y Hancock, G.R. (2017) The Thorny Relation Between Measurement Quality and Fit Index Cutoffs in Latent Variable Models. J. Personal. Assess., 100, 43–52.
Mertler, C.A. (2001) Teacher Motivation and Job Satisfaction in the New Millennium. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Mid-Western Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, USA, 24–27 October 2021, ERIC Clearinghouse: Chicago, IL, USA, pp. 24–27.
Miles, J., Gilbert, P.A. (2005) Handbook of Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (2025) Estadística de personal de las universidades. Curso 2023-2024 [Informe]. Secretaría General de Universidades. Disponible en: https://www.ciencia.gob.es/dam/jcr:cffdd953-b05d-466f-a971-fa9f64f6b5e3/NotaEPU_2324.pdf
Ministerio de Universidades (2023) Datos y cifras del Sistema Universitario Español. Ministerio de Universidades, Madrid, España. Disponible en https://www.universidades.gob.es/portal/site/universidades/datosycifras
Miquelon, P., Vallerand, R.J., Grouzet, F.M.E., y Cardinal, G. (2005) Perfectionism, academic motivation, and psychological adjustment: An integrative model. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull., 31, 913–921.
Nalipay, M.J.N., King, R.B., Mordeno, I.G., y Wang, H. (2022) Are good teachers born or made? Teachers who hold a growth mindset about their teaching ability have better well-being. Educ. Psychol., 42, 23–41.
Osman, D.J., y Warner, J.R. (2020) Measuring teacher motivation: The missing link between professional development and practice. Teach. Teach. Educ., 92, 103–164.
Pelletier, L.G., Séguin-Lévesque, C., y Legault, L. (2002) Pressure from above and pressure from below as determinants of teachers’ motivation and teaching behaviors. J. Educ. Psychol., 94, 186–196.
Pérez-Díaz, V., y Rodríguez, J. C. (2021) Universidades españolas: Una perspectiva institucional. Fundación Europea Sociedad y Educación. Madrid, España.
Pino Juste, M. (2019) Metodologías activas como clave en los procesos de innovación en la escuela. In Éxito Educativo: Claves de Construcción y Desarrollo, Rego, M.A.S., Moledo, A.V.A.Y.M.L., Eds., Editorial Tirant lo Blanch: Valencia, España, pp. 129–150.
Plant, R.W., y Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and the effects of self-consciousness, self-awareness, and ego-involvement: An investigation of internally controlling styles. J. Personal., 53, 435–449.
Putri, A.F., Andriningrum, H., Rofiah, S.K., y Gunawan, I. (2019) Teacher Function in Class: A Literature Review, Atlantis-Press: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Volume 10.
Ratelle, C.F., Guay, F., Vallerand, R.J., Larose, S., y Senécal, C. (2007) Autonomous, Controlled, and Amotivated Types of Academic Motivation: A Person-Oriented Analysis. J. Educ. Psychol., 99, 734–746.
Rico-Gómez, M. L., y Ponce Gea, A. I. (2022) El docente del siglo XXI: perspectivas según el rol formativo y profesional. Revista mexicana de investigación educativa, 27(92), 77-101.
Rodríguez, S., Núñez, J.C., Valle, A., Blas, R., y Rosario, P. (2009) Auto-eficacia docente, motivación del profesor y estrategias de enseñanza. Escritos Psicol., 11, 1–7.
Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., y Kaplan, H. (2007) Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning. J. Educ. Psychol., 99, 761–774.
Ruiz Quiles, Y., Moreno-Murcia, J. A., y Vera, J. A. (2015). Del soporte de autonomía y la motivación autodeterminada a la satisfacción laboral docente. European Journal of Education and Psychology, 8(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejeps.2015.01.001
Ruiz, M. (2015). Del soporte de autonomía y la motivación autodeterminada a la satisfacción laboral docente. European Journal of Education and Psychology, 8(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejeps.2015.09.002
Ryan, R.M. (1982) Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol., 43, 450–461.
Ryan, R.M., Connell, J.P., y Plant, R.W. (1990) Emotions in nondirected text learning. Learn Individ. Differ., núm. 2, 1–17.
Ryan, R.M., Koestner, R., y Deci, E.L. (1991) Ego-involved persistence: When free-choice behavior is not intrinsically motivated. Motiv. Emot., núm. 15, 185–205.
Ryan, R.M., Mims, V., y Koestner, R. (1983) Relation of reward contingency and interpersonal context to intrinsic motivation: A review and test using cognitive evaluation theory. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol., 45, 736–750.
Salton, Y., Riddle, S., y Baguley, M. (2021) The ‘good’ teacher in an era of professional standards: Policy frameworks and lived realities. Teach. Teach., 28, 51–63.
Sato, M., Fernández Castillo, F., y Oyanedel, J.C. (2022) Teacher motivation and burnout of English as a foreign language teachers: Do demotivators really demotivate them? Front. Psychol., 13, 891452.
Skaalvik, E.M., y Skaalvik, S. (2018) Job demands and job resources as predictors of teacher motivation and well-being. Soc. Psychol. Educ., 21, 1251–1275.
Song, M. (2022) Chinese English as Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Motivation as Predictors of Burnout. Front. Psochol., 13, 899687.
Tébar, L. (2003) El perfil del profesor mediador. En Aula XXI, Santillana: Madrid, España.
Toptas, V., y Celik, S. (2022). EFL Teachers’ Work Tasks Motivation towards Class Preparation, Teaching and Evaluation of Students. Acta Educationis Generalis, 12(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.2478/atd-2022-0001
Toropova, A., Myrberg, E., y Johansson, S. (2021) Teacher job satisfaction: The importance of school working conditions and teacher characteristics. Educ. Rev., 73, 71–97.
UNESCO (2024) Informe global sobre docentes. International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030. UNESCO.
Viseu, J., Neves de Jesus, S., Rus, C., y Canavarro, J.M. (2016) Teacher motivation, work satisfaction, and positive psychological capital: A literature review. Electron. J. Res. Educ. Psychol. 2016, 14, 439–461.
Visser-Wijnveen, G.J., Stes, A., y Van Petegem, P. (2012) Development and validation of a questionnaire measuring teachers’ motivations for teaching in higher education. High Educ., 64, 421–436.
Wu, H., y Leung, S.O. (2017) Can Likert Scales be Treated as Interval Scales? A Simulation Study. J. Soc. Serv. Res., 43, 527–532.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Víctor Renobell, Silvia Fuentes de Frutos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions:
Authors conserve the copyrights and cede to the journal the right for first publication, with the work registered with the attribution licence of Creative Commons, which allows third parties to use the published work as long as they mention the authorship and the first publication in this journal.
The authors may make other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g. include it an institutional repository or publish it in a book) as long as it clearly indicates that the work was first published in this journal.
Authors are allowed and indeed recommended to publish their work on the internet (for example on institutional or personal pages) before and during the revision and publication process, because it can lead to productive exchanges and greater and faster dissemination of the published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
