ABSTRACT
Recent studies on teacher motivation have largely adopted social-cognitive perspectives, explicating how individual differences in beliefs and orientations result in different career choices and achievement behaviors (see other chapters in this volume). These perspectives emphasize the interactive and joint effects of personal and contextual factors in motivated behavior. This chapter examines cultural influences on teacher motivation through a comparative analysis of related processes in Western and Chinese contexts. We overview dominant Western theoretical formulations in the Socratic-individualistic cultural tradition with reference to the social-cognitive perspective and examine their applications in the Chinese education context, which is under the influence of Confucian-collectivistic culture. Such analysis provides insights for further research and theory development that takes into account cultural factors.
