What Are University Professors’ Motivations? A Realistic Approach to Self-Perception of a Group of Spanish University Professors Belonging to the G-9 Group of Universities

Luis Espejo-Antúnez, Mario Corrales-Serrano, Francisco Zamora-Polo, Miguel González-Velasco and María de los Ángeles Cardero-Durán
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Luis Espejo-Antúnez: Departamento de Terapeútica Médico Quirúrgica, Facultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, España
Mario Corrales-Serrano: Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales, Lengua y Literatura, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, España
Francisco Zamora-Polo: Departamento de Ingeniería del Diseño, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Sevilla, C/Virgen de África, 7, 41011 Sevilla, España
Miguel González-Velasco: Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, España
María de los Ángeles Cardero-Durán: Departamento de Terapeútica Médico Quirúrgica, Facultad de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda de Elvas s/n, 06006 Badajoz, España

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: Universities face challenges on a number of levels. In this scenario, university professors play an important role as facilitators of knowledge. The main objective of this study was to analyse the motivations that influence the professional performance in a sample of 102 university professors from nine Spanish public universities (Male: 54 (52.9%); Female: 48 (47.1%)). For this purpose, a questionnaire of 22 closed-ended Likert-type questions was designed, in which scores ranged from 0 to 10 (do not agree at all, strongly agree). Following analysis, the final questionnaire was composed of 17 items, and showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.858). The validity analysis showed a value of 0.822 (>0.5) in the sample adequacy measure of Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin and Bartlett’s sphericity test ( p < 0.0001). The exploratory factor analysis showed a clustering in four factors (two for intrinsic motivations and two for extrinsic motivations), explaining 64.33% of the total variance. Comparisons between each factor score by gender (male and female) showed statistically significant differences for factor F1 (higher for females) and F2 (higher for males). Finally, Q1 and Q13 showed a statistically significant correlation ( p ? 0.05) with years of teaching experience. The motivations of Spanish university professors appear to be associated with the age and gender of the teacher.

Keywords: higher education; teachers; motivations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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