Abstract

This article analyzes self-reports of teacher perceptions regarding personal responsibility in school motivation. Participants were teachers-in-training and those currently working in Primary Education (n=773) in the Araucania Region, Chile. Four different profiles were identified from cluster analysis, where responsibility was seen as personal, or shared; and where school motivation was represented as continuous, or discrete. Results show that respondents tend to place responsibility for school motivation within the family for the most effective exercise of the profession. For practicing teachers, school motivation tended to be conceived of as discrete moments, of shared responsibility; while future teachers were significantly more likely to see motivation as a continuous process, of personal (teacher) responsibility. Given that teachers have the educational tools and opportunity to most effectively motivate school learning, it is urgent to generate strategies where responsibility is robustly assumed by teachers themselves; and as a continuous process beyond a specific moment in the classroom.