ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the effects of intrinsic motivations on men’s career trajectories in ECEC. Intrinsic motivations correlate to actions and thoughts that are not dependent on external rewards, but rather reflect internal desires to learn something new, or to use or share knowledge gained in practice. We rely on the self-determination theory, in which needs such as efficacy, autonomy, and social relatedness are the main sources of motivation. Based on the general methodological approach and sample of the research project, a combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies was applied for the analyses. Our data converge with the theoretical assumptions and empirical findings to a large extent, as evidenced in both the quantitative and qualitative differences that we found between men who managed to stay in the field of ECEC versus those who left it. Especially the qualitative analysis suggests that the persisters have a greater sense of competence, autonomy, and social relatedness in regard to their work in ECEC than the dropouts. Nevertheless, our statistical findings include some contradictory aspects as the persisters do not refer to social relatedness in terms of expressing feelings about working with young children as much as the dropouts do.
