Music Teachers’ Motivation and Need Sat...

After the WHO (2020) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020, the world was forced to move online. Instrumental music instruction was also affected by this situation. This paper presents a study which focuses on teacher motivation and assessment of music teachers’ working conditions before (retrospective assessment) and during (N = 112) the COVID-19 crisis in Austria.

The study investigated the extent to which the transition to online instrumental music instruction impairs motivation and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs among music teachers. The theoretical basis of the study is self-determination theory, which distinguishes between autonomous and controlled forms of motivation and assumes that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is essential for the development of autonomous motivation. The results of the study primarily indicate that autonomous motivation is rated significantly lower when online instruction is enforced compared to pre-pandemic motivation. In contrast, controlled forms of motivation did not change before and during the pandemic. Furthermore, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs appeared to decrease significantly with enforced distance teaching. A structural equation model showed that the variance in autonomous forms of motivation is best explained by satisfaction of the basic need for autonomy, perceived restrictions and age. Another structural equation model looking at pre-pandemic data similarly points to the varying differential importance of needs for instructor motivation.