“I WAS BORN TO DO THIS”: TEACHER MOTIVATION IN A JORDAN REFUGEE MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR BOYS

Rania M. Sadeq
Dr., Chicago, Illinois, The United States, rania.sadeq@outlook.com

Abstract

Refugees are a displaced population that is fleeing war, persecution, or natural disasters. They lose everything and find themselves in makeshift camps. Many of these camps are slowly forgotten because the conflicts take so long to resolve. This ethnographic study took place in one of the 10 official refugee camps in Jordan. The United Nations Relief and Work Agency provides education for over 118,500 Palestinian students at 174 UNRWA schools in Jordan. Al Hurriya refugee camp was established in 1968 and has been a temporary home for three generations. My research focused specifically on Al Noor Middle School for boys in the Al Hurriya refugee camp.

This dissertation focused specifically on teacher motivation in Al Noor School. I conducted an ethnography to explore teacher Intrinsic Motivation (IM) and Self-Determination (SDT). My fieldwork included interviews with and observations of the principal of the school and 13 teachers. I also conducted observations of the daily life of the school as an integral site of community in the Al Hurriya refugee camp. In my research, I encountered a constellation of factors that contributed to teacher motivation in this refugee camp of high poverty and decades of displacement from a homeland.

My data analysis revealed that the participating teachers and principal unanimously expressed that three of the main factors for their intrinsic motivation were their pride in being educators, their loyalty to their community, and their goals of preserving their and their students’ ethnic identity. This dissertation contributes knowledge about motivation overall and teacher intrinsic motivation and self-determination specifically. It illustrates how motivated and dedicated educators persevere and succeed in a harsh environment. 

Keywords: resilience, refugees, UNRWA, Jordan, displaced population, Motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, self-esteem, self-determination, autonomous and controlled motivation, amotivation, refugee camp.