Understanding preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession: An integrated model of the theory of planned behaviour and motivation theory

Abstract

Music teacher attrition represents a serious educational concern, especially among preservice music teachers due to their lack of sufficient occupational identity and commitment. However, factors influencing their decisions on remaining in/leaving the profession are not well understood. This study proposed and empirically tested a psychological decision model by integrating the theory of planned behaviour and motivation theory to explain preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession. Questionnaires were administrated to 218 preservice music teachers from vocational colleges in China. The results showed that the integrated model could explain 78% of the variance in behavioural intention. Attitude, subjective norm and intrinsic motivation were identified as significant antecedents for preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession, while perceived behavioural control and extrinsic motivation exerted indirect impacts on behavioural intention through mediating roles of intrinsic motivation and attitude. The findings provide important implications for the design of effective policies and strategies to attract and keep preservice music teachers in the profession.

Keywords

Behavioural intention motivation music education preservice music teachers teacher attrition theory of planned behaviour

Introduction

Music teacher attrition has long been a serious educational concern worldwide (Gardner, 2010; Hancock, 2016). It can create a series of problems in music education, including negative consequences on the quality of schooling, the continuity of student learning, school community stability and fiscal costs (Ballantyne & Retell, 2019; Hancock, 2016). The attrition rate can be even higher among preservice music teachers when they make career decisions due to the lack of sufficient occupational identity and commitment, as reported in many countries (e.g., China (Zhang et al., 2016), USA (Kloss, 2013), Mexico (González-Moreno, 2012) and Singapore (Bennett & Chong, 2017)). Therefore, it is of great importance to investigate factors that influence preservice music teachers’ decisions on remaining in the profession.

A number of factors have been shown to influence teachers’ decisions about staying in or leaving the profession, including age, gender, job stress, self-efficacy, occupational commitment, extrinsic incentives and fit between individuals and organizations (Conkling & Conkling, 2018; González-Moreno, 2012; Hong, 2012; Klassen & Chiu, 2011). In addition, studies show that lack of preparation, quality of preservice teacher education programmes, teacher identity and early career support are also key to preservice and early-career music teachers’ decisions on remaining in the profession (Ballantyne, 2007, 2012; Ballantyne et al., 2012; Ballantyne & Packer, 2004; Ballantyne & Retell, 2019). While previous studies have made much effort in the understanding of socio-demographic and organizational factors related to teacher attrition, less is known about the influence of psychological factors (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018; Hong, 2012). Moreover, only a few of the studies were grounded in a theory that could explain teachers’ intention (Klassen & Chiu, 2011), suggesting that model misspecification could be a significant limitation of previous research.

Given that teacher attrition/retention involves an active choice and a range of cognitive and behavioural adjustments, psychological theories of behavioural change have considerable potential in explaining why some preservice music teachers continue on their profession, whereas others do not. In light of this, the present study was aimed to propose and empirically test an integrated psychological decision model by integrating two well-known psychological theories (i.e., the theory of planned behaviour [TPB] and motivation theory) to examine preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession. The findings might help researchers understand the processes that influence preservice music teachers’ career decisions, and help policy-makers and educators design effective strategies to motivate them to remain in the profession.

Theoretical background and hypotheses development

This section presents the theoretical background in this study, followed by the rationale of hypotheses and model development.

Theoretical background

A review of the literature suggested that TPB (Ajzen, 1991) and motivation theory (Davis et al., 1992; Deci & Ryan, 1985) are two of the most prevalent theories that examine psychological variables of individuals’ behavioural intention and decision-making (Figure 1). TPB assumes that people act after they have formed a behavioural intention, which has been widely considered a valid agent of actual behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Behaviour intention, in turn, has three determinants: attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude refers to an individual’s overall evaluation of a specific behaviour. Subjective norm accounts for the agreement of personal behaviour from important others, and could be conveyed by many forms (e.g., conformity, socialization, peer pressure and leadership (Fiske et al., 2010)). Perceived behavioural control refers to perception of internal and external resource constraints (e.g., self-efficacy, skills and opportunities) on performing a behaviour (Ajzen, 1991).

Figure 1.

Theoretical background: The theory of planned behaviour and motivation theory.

While TPB has been widely tested, validated and utilized to predict behavioural intention across varied contexts, such as student retention behaviours (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018), pro-environment behaviours (Ru et al., 2019), and new technology acceptance behaviours (Tao et al., 2020), it has seldom been applied to the modelling of preservice teachers’ behaviour intention. There is a concurrent need to gain empirical evidence for the support of such model within education settings and to help with promotion strategies to keep preservice music teachers in the profession. Therefore, we adopted TPB as a fundamental framework for the proposed psychological decision model and incorporated motivation theory to enhance its predictive power.

Motivation theories are widely applied to explain human behaviour. Among varied motivation theories, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation theory can be a fundamental one, which is consistently shown to be able to explain a large amount of variance in behavioural intention across varied contexts (Feng et al., 2016; Lin, 2007; Vallerand, 2000). This theory proposes that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are key in determining behavioural intention (Davis et al., 1992; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Vallerand, 2000). Intrinsic motivation refers to internal rewards (e.g., pleasure and inherent satisfaction) to perform a behaviour, and extrinsic motivation implies external rewards or utilities associated with a behaviour (Vallerand, 2000). In addition, extrinsic motivation like rewards can signal the importance of achievement and individuals’ competence, and thus is likely to enhance intrinsic motivation (Gagné & Deci, 2005).

While extant literature has indicated that motivational factors may be related to teachers’ intention to remain in the profession (Bruinsma & Jansen, 2010; Watt & Richardson, 2007), little is known about which types of motivational factors (e.g., extrinsic or intrinsic motivation) are more important and how they determine teachers’ behavioural intention. It is likely that the integration of motivational factors could increase the predictive utility of TPB (Chatzisarantis et al., 2006).

Hypotheses development

We proposed the same constructs that existed in the original TPB and motivation theory in our model and developed hypotheses among them. Figure 2 displays the proposed conceptual model.

Figure 2.

The proposal psychological decision model.

Based on original definitions in TPB (Ajzen, 1991), attitude in this study refers to preservice music teachers’ positive or negative feelings towards being a teacher. Subjective norm is defined as preservice music teachers’ perceptions that people important to them believe that they should/should not work as a teacher. Perceived behaviour control is the perception of availability of skills, resources and opportunities necessary for preservice music teachers to make career choices. Many studies across varied domains have confirmed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are important predictors of behavioural intention (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018; Ru et al., 2019; Tao et al., 2020) and even the prime determinants of retention intention for teachers (Kersaint et al., 2007) and students (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018). Based on these arguments, the following hypotheses were proposed:

H1. Preservice music teachers’ attitude will positively affect their behavioural intention to remain in the profession.

H2. Subjective norm will positively affect preservice music teachers’ behavioural intention to remain in the profession.

H3. Perceived behavioural control will positively affect preservice music teachers’ behavioural intention to remain in the profession.

Motivation theory suggests that people perform a specific behaviour largely because they consider they can obtain utility (i.e., extrinsic motivation) and enjoyment (i.e., intrinsic motivation) from the behaviour. In educational settings, it is important to attract students with the ‘right’ motivations, so that they can ‘engage deeply in their preservice preparation and subsequent professional lives’ (Sinclair et al., 2006). On one hand, preservice music teachers may make career decisions based on expected extrinsic rewards of staying in the profession (Gardner, 2010). Previous studies have examined a number of extrinsic motivation factors (e.g., job transferability, job security, time for family, good salary, social status and working conditions) (Bruinsma & Jansen, 2010; González-Moreno, 2012; Han & Yin, 2016; Kersaint et al., 2007; Richardson & Watt, 2013; Watt & Richardson, 2007) that are associated with teachers’ attitudes towards and intention to continue their teaching career. Among them, job security, time benefit and social status are recognized as three of the most important factors (Mertler, 2016; Richardson & Watt, 2013; Watt & Richardson, 2007), and were applied as measurements for extrinsic motivation in this study.

On the other hand, preservice music teachers may also be motivated to stay in the profession by intrinsic rewards. A number of intrinsic motivation factors have been documented in previous studies, such as intrinsic career value, sense of enjoyment, desire for social contribution and interpersonal relationships with students (Bruinsma & Jansen, 2010; González-Moreno, 2012; Han & Yin, 2016; Richardson & Watt, 2013; Tao et al., 2019; Watt & Richardson, 2007). Among these factors, intrinsic career value, social contribution and interpersonal relationships with students are recognized as three of the most important factors (Mertler, 2016; Watt & Richardson, 2007), and thus were applied as measurements for intrinsic motivation in this study. Based on these arguments, it was hypothesized that

H4. Intrinsic motivation will positively affect preservice music teachers’ behavioural intention to remain in the profession.

H5. Intrinsic motivation will positively affect preservice music teachers’ attitude towards remaining in the profession.

H6. Extrinsic motivation will positively affect preservice music teachers’ intrinsic motivation to remain in the profession.

H7. Extrinsic motivation will positively affect preservice music teachers’ behavioural intention to remain in the profession.

H8. Extrinsic motivation will positively affect preservice music teachers’ attitude towards remaining in the profession.

In addition, according to TPB (Ajzen, 1991), individuals with high perceived behavioural control are likely to develop self-determined motivational orientations and consider their behaviours to be autonomously motivated. That is, if a preservice music teacher has a higher degree of perceived behavioural control, he or she is more likely to be intrinsically motivated. In addition, subjective norm represents social influence on individuals to perform or not to perform a particular behaviour. Individuals may consider important others’ beliefs as social motivation and tend to comply with them. It is speculated that music preservice teachers would rely on important others’ experience and comments when they evaluate extrinsic benefits that teaching career will bring to them. Thus, we hypothesized that

H9. Perceived behavioural control will positively affect preservice music teachers’ intrinsic motivation to remain in the profession.

H10. Subjective norm will positively affect preservice music teachers’ extrinsic motivation to remain in the profession.

Methods

A survey was conducted among preservice music teachers to explore their perceptions on the proposed model constructs. Data were examined through structural equation modelling to verify the proposed model.

Participants

Participants were recruited from three vocational colleges in south-central China. They were college students who were enrolled in 3- or 4-year preservice music teacher education programmes, which were aimed to train qualified music teachers for primary and secondary education in China. Experiences of professional music training were not necessary for the enrolment of these programmes. It is also not compulsory for the students to remain in the profession after their completion of the programmes. Two hundred and fifty preservice music teachers were invited to participate in this study by completing an online survey, with a response rate of 89% (i.e., 222 participants). After eliminating 4 incomplete samples, we obtained 218 valid samples for data analysis. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the samples. The mean age of the samples was 18.6 (standard deviation [SD] = 1.2), with a range of 16–22 years. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shenzhen University.

Table 1.

Demographic characteristics of the participants.

Variables	Type	Number of participants	Percent
Gender	Male	30	13.8
	Female	188	86.2
Expertise of music teaching	Instrumental	45	20.6
	Vocal	139	63.8
	Chinese classical dance	31	14.2
	Others	3	1.4
Years of professional music training before the enrolment of current music education programme	None	79	36.2
	3 years or less	116	53.2
	4–6 years	18	8.3
	7 years or more	5	2.3
Current year in the music education programme	Year 1	129	59.2
	Year 2	40	18.3
	Year 3	41	18.8
	Year 4	8	3.7
Music teaching internship experience	Absence	169	77.5
Music teaching internship experience	Presence	49	22.5

Procedures

A self-report online questionnaire survey was sent out to participants by www.sojump.com in September 2019. Participants were explicitly informed that they would be asked questions about their demographics, perceptions and opinions related to being a preservice music teacher; that they should respond honestly to questionnaire items; and that the survey was conducted anonymously, with their personal information confidentially kept and used for research purpose only.

Instruments

The questionnaire was designed by adopting measurement scales that were validated by previous studies. The operationalization and sources of the questionnaire items are shown in Table 2. Multiple rounds of pilot tests with music teachers and students were conducted to improve the clarity and validity of the questionnaire. Necessary revisions were made on some items to improve the fit of the questionnaire to the specific scenario of this study. The questionnaire included two parts. The first part started with a brief description of preservice music teacher education programmes, followed by the purpose of the study and the way to respond to questionnaire items. The second part included items asking for demographics and items measuring constructs in the proposed model. All the items were measured using a seven-point Likert-type scales ranging from ‘1-strongly disagree’ to ‘7-strongly agree’, which were shown to be more precise in measurement compared with other Likert-type scales (e.g., 5-point or10-point) and appropriate for unsupervised and online-distributed questionnaires (Dawes, 2008).

Table 2.

Measurement items and sources of the constructs examined in the model.

Constructs	Items	Sources	Item loadings	AVE	Composite reliability	Cronbach’s alpha
Intrinsic career value	ICV1 I am interested in music teaching.	Bruinsma & Jansen (2010); Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.85	0.740	0.90	.95
	ICV2 I have always wanted to be a music teacher.		0.86
	ICV3 I like music teaching.		0.87
Social contribution	SC1 Working as a music teacher will allow me to contribute to the society.	Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.78	0.53	0.77	.96
	SC2 Music teachers make a worthwhile social contribution.		0.68
	SC3 Working as a music teacher enables me to give back to society.		0.73
Children relationship	CR1 I want a job that involves working with children/adolescents.	Bruinsma & Jansen (2010); Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.78	0.598	0.82	.97
	CR2 I want to work in a child and adolescent-centred environment.		0.77
	CR3 I like working with children/adolescents.		0.77
Job security	JS1 Working as a music teacher will offer a steady career path.	Bruinsma & Jansen (2010); Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.76	0.680	0.86	.96
	JS2 Working as a music teacher will provide a reliable income.		0.85
	JS3 Working as a music teacher will be a secure job.		0.86
Social status	SS1 Music teacher is a well-respected career.	Bruinsma & Jansen (2010); Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.85	0.789	0.94	.91
	SS2 Music teacher is perceived as a high-status occupation.		0.90
	SS3 Music teachers are perceived as professionals.		0.87
	SS4 Music teachers are valued by society.		0.93
Time benefit	TB1 Working as a music teacher could allow more free time.	Han & Yin (2016); Watt & Richardson (2007)	0.82	0.621	0.83	.89
	TB2 As a music teacher I will have lengthy holidays.		0.82
	TB3 As a music teacher I will have a short workday.		0.72
Perceived behavioural control	PBC1 Choosing music teacher as my career is completely up to me.	Ajzen (1991); Dunn et al. (2018)	0.74	0.653	0.85	.73
	PBC2 I have the knowledge, ability and opportunities to become a music teacher.		0.83
	PBC3 I am confident that if I want, I can work as a music teacher.		0.85
Subjective norm	SN1 People who influence me think I should work as a music teacher.	Ajzen (1991); Dunn et al. (2018)	0.73	0.540	0.71	.88
Subjective norm	SN2 People who are important to me think I should work as a music teacher.	Ajzen (1991); Dunn et al. (2018)	0.74
Attitude	ATT1 It is a good idea to work as a music teacher.	Ajzen (1991); Dunn et al. (2018)	0.92	0.878	0.96	.93
	ATT2 It is a wise idea to work as a music teacher.		0.96
	ATT3 It is pleasant to work as a music teacher.		0.93
Behavioural intention	BI1 I intend to work as a music teacher in future.	Ajzen (1991); Dunn et al. (2018)	0.76	0.579	0.80	.95
	BI2 I am willing to work as a music teacher in future.		0.80
	BI3 I will make an effort to work as a music teacher.		0.72

AVE: average variance extracted.

Data analysis

Bivariate correlation analysis was conducted to determine the inter-correlations among major variables. Independent sample t-tests were used to examine whether gender and music teaching internship experience would exert differences in behavioural intention to remain in the profession. The measurement model was verified by examining convergent validity and discriminant validity of the measurement items. The convergent validity was assessed using three criterion proposed by Fornell and Larcker (1981): (1) item reliability, (2) composite reliability of each construct and (3) the average variance extracted (AVE). The item reliability was assessed by verifying that all item factor loadings are significant and greater than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2006). The composite reliability is considered adequate if it has a value of 0.70 or larger (DeVellis, 2003). The AVE measures the amount of variance explained by the construct in relation to the amount of variance due to its measurement error (Fornell and Larcker, 1981), and is adequate if it is larger than 0.50. Discriminant validity was assessed by comparing the square root of the AVE for a given construct with its correlations with all other constructs, and was considered adequate if the square root of the AVE is larger than the correlations. Structural equation modelling was employed to examine the hypothesized structural model using the maximum likelihood estimates method with AMOS 21. Six commonly used goodness-of-fit (GFI) indices were employed to assess the overall model fit. A good fit was indicated by the ratio of Chi-square statistic to the degree of freedom (χ2/df < 3), the GFI (⩾0.90), the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI ⩾ 0.80), the comparative fit index (CFI ⩾ 0.90), the normed fit index (NFI ⩾ 0.90) and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA < 0.06) (Kaplan, 2008).

Results

Associations among major variables

Means and correlations of the examined variables are presented in Table 3. The major predictor variables were moderately correlated, indicating an acceptable degree of multicollinearity among the predictors. Gender (t = -2.52, p = .197) and music teaching internship experience (t = 1.19, p = .767) showed no difference in behavioural intention to remain in the profession, and thus they were not considered in the proposed model.

Table 3.

Descriptive characteristics of and correlations among major variables.

Variables	Intrinsic career value	Social contribution	Children relationship	Job security	Social status	Time benefit	Attitude	Perceived behavioural control	Subjective norm	Behavioural intention
1. Intrinsic career value	0.860
2. Social contribution	0.659**	0.728
3. Children relationship	0.655**	0.634**	0.773
4. Job security	0.399**	0.559**	0.478**	0.825
5. Social status	0.517**	0.578**	0.586**	0.643**	0.888
6. Time benefit	0.223**	0.317**	0.323**	0.688**	0.589**	0.788
7. Attitude	0.644**	0.691**	0.670**	0.561**	0.698**	0.426**	0.937
8. Perceived behavioural control	0.538**	0.597**	0.519**	0.414**	0.488**	0.256**	0.531**	0.808
9. Subjective norm	0.456**	0.537**	0.437**	0.465**	0.501**	0.297**	0.501**	0.538**	0.735
10. Behavioural intention	0.688**	0.628**	0.684**	0.467**	0.571**	0.258**	0.662**	0.569**	0.550**	0.761
Mean	5.1	5.4	5.1	4.9	5.0	4.5	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.2
SD	1.1	1.0	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.0	0.9	1.1	1.0

SD: standard deviation.

Diagonal elements are the square root of average variance extracted (AVE).

p< .01.

The measurement model

As shown in Table 2, factor loadings of all the items ranged from 0.68 to 0.96, which exceeded the recommended value of 0.5. The composite reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.96, all above the recommended value of 0.70. The AVE for all the constructs exceeded 0.50. Therefore, the convergent validity was adequate. Table 3 shows that the square roots of the AVE for each of the constructs were larger than its correlations with all other constructs. Therefore, the discriminate validity appeared satisfactory.

The structural model

All the fit indices indicated that the tested model fit the data well (χ²/d.f. = 2.26, GFI = 0.90, AGFI = 0.84, CFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.076). The results of the estimated structural model are depicted in Figure 3 and summarized in Table 4. The amount of variance in behavioural intention accounted for by its antecedents was 78%. Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation explained 77% of the total variance in attitude. Perceived behavioural control and extrinsic motivation accounted for 64% of the variance in intrinsic motivation, while subjective norm alone accounted for 37% of the variance in extrinsic motivation.

Figure 3.

The final model and standardized path coefficients (Dotted lines indicate non-significant links).

Table 4.

Results of hypothesis testing.

Hypotheses	Path coefficients	t-value	p value	Support?
H1: ATT → BI	0.28	2.87	.004	Yes
H2: PBC → BI	–0.07	–0.67	.410	No
H3: SN →BI	0.16	2.23	.036	Yes
H4: EM → BI	–0.13	–1.62	.087	No
H5: IM → BI	0.67	6.10	<.001	Yes
H6: EM → IM	0.43	7.07	<.001	Yes
H7: SN →EM	0.61	3.84	<.001	Yes
H8: PBC → IM	0.52	6.96	<.001	No
H9: IM → ATT	0.67	8.00	<.001	Yes
H10: EM → ATT	0.38	5.30	<.001	Yes

PBC: perceived behavioural control; SN: subjective norm; ATT: attitude; BI: behavioural intention; IM: intrinsic motivation; EM: extrinsic motivation.

Out of the 10 research hypotheses, 8 were supported. Attitude (β = 0.28, p = .004) and subjective norm (β = 0.16, p = .036) were found to positively affect behavioural intention. Therefore, H1 and H2 were supported. H3 was not supported, as perceived behavioural control showed no effects on behavioural intention. Intrinsic motivation had a positive influence on behavioural intention (β = 0.67, p < .001), while extrinsic motivation yielded no effects on behavioural intention. Therefore, H4 was supported, while H7 was not supported. The results provided support for H5 and H8, as both intrinsic motivation (β = 0.58, p < .001) and extrinsic motivation (β = 0.38, p < .001) positively influenced attitude. Both extrinsic motivation (β = 0.43, p < .001) and perceived behavioural control (β = 0.52, p < .001) had a positive effect on intrinsic motivation, supporting H6 and H9. Subjective norm (β = 0.61, p < .001) had a positive effect on extrinsic motivation, supporting H10.

Discussion

The present study proposed and tested a psychological decision model by integrating TPB and motivation theories to understand behavioural intention to remain in the profession among Chinese preservice music teachers. The work in this study, to the best of our knowledge, is among one of the first studies to explore critical antecedents that affect the formation of preservice music teachers’ career decisions.

Primary findings

The results demonstrated that our model fit well with the data, and explained 78% of the variance in behavioural intention to be a preservice music teacher. This value was comparable with, or even higher than that in previous studies on other teacher professionals (e.g., 81% (Klassen & Chiu, 2011) and 60% (Dunn et al., 2018)). This may be due to that our study integrated TPB and motivational theory, which enabled us to include a comprehensive set of factors that were effective in the prediction of behavioural intention. Overall, our results verified the predicting roles of attitude, subjective norm and intrinsic motivation on behavioural intention.

Specifically, our study found that attitude exerted significant effects on behavioural intention, consistent with previous TPB studies on teachers’ intentions to engage in professional learning (Dunn et al., 2018) and student retention (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018). It is likely that music preservice teachers would be more willing to choose teaching as a career if they have developed a positive attitude towards it. The importance of subjective norm was also established by its direct effects on behavioural intention. The underlying reason for the effects of subjective norm can be well explained by the internalization effect (i.e., one incorporates important others’ beliefs into one’s own beliefs) and compliance effect (i.e., one tends to do what his or her important others say he or she should do, even though he or she may not like or believe in it) (Tao et al., 2020). This finding appears to echo the well-documented phenomenon in music education literature that music students’ parents and teachers (including private lesson instructors) would influence their occupational identity and decisions on pursuing music education careers (Isbell, 2008; Kos, 2018). It indicates that important others’ expectations will reinforce preservice music teachers’ willingness to choose teaching as a career. This might be particularly true for Chinese individuals, who tend to follow beliefs from their parents and seniors with the influence of collectivistic culture (Wang et al., 2016), and for young preservice teacher students, who may be unable to make independent decisions yet (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018). In addition, subjective norm exerted a large impact on extrinsic motivation. It suggests that preservice music teachers would also rely on important others’ experience and comments when they evaluate extrinsic benefits that a teaching career will bring to them.

It is intriguing that, in contrast to previous TPB studies in many other contexts (Dewberry & Jackson, 2018; Tao et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2016), our study found no effect of perceived behavioural control on behavioural intention. The unexpected finding suggests that perceived behavioural control (e.g., self-efficacy, skills and available resources) is not an important factor in career decision-making for Chinese preservice music teachers. This finding appears inconsistent with what was reported in Western countries (Hong, 2012; Klassen & Chiu, 2011; Pfitzner-Eden, 2016), suggesting the existence of cultural difference. However, the finding does not necessarily indicate that perceived behavioural control does not help explain behavioural intention, as it yielded indirect effects on behavioural intention through the mediating role of intrinsic motivation. It underlines the significance of creating favourable conditions and eliminating any potential obstacles to reinforce preservice music teachers’ intrinsic motivation.

The present study took an important step towards extending TPB with motivation theory and tested an integrated model that included both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The results show that intrinsic motivation was identified as the most powerful predictor of behavioural intention in our study, with its direct effects and indirect effects through attitude. It indicates that intrinsically motivated preservice music teachers are more likely to say that they will remain in the profession. This may be that preservice music teachers choose music education programmes mainly due to their love and desire to work in this field (Gardner, 2010; Mertler, 2016). Previous studies have also identified several important intrinsic motivators that are able to reinforce preservice teachers’ early profession beliefs, including desire to share and develop professional passion (Kos, 2018), job satisfaction (Mertler, 2016) and professional identity (Ballantyne et al., 2012; Ballantyne & Retell, 2019; Bennett & Chong, 2017; Hong, 2010).

In contrast, extrinsic motivation showed no direct effect on behavioural intention, suggesting that extrinsic motivation is less important in music preservice teachers’ career decision. This finding helps explain why the use of incentives would be of little success to attract preservice music teachers (Bennett & Chong, 2017). In fact, previous studies also suggest that extrinsic motivation might only elicit temporary compliance of the intended behaviours (Olatokun & Nwafor, 2012), and does not work well in the prediction of behavioural intention in situations where individuals are motivated by their own feelings, beliefs and career value (Lin, 2007). However, it should be noted that extrinsic motivation yielded a direct impact on intrinsic motivation. This might be that preservice music teachers consider extrinsic motivation as recognition of their competence and contribution, which is likely to reinforce their intrinsic motivation (Robinson, 2012). Overall, these findings provide empirical corroboration that policies designed to increase intrinsic motivation deserve a higher priority than to improve extrinsic motivation in the promotion of preservice music teachers’ decisions to remain in the profession.

Implications

Our findings have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, our findings demonstrate both the adequacy and efficacy of the integration of TPB and motivation theory as an appropriate conceptual framework for predicting and understanding preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession, while it extended previous evidence by examining the effects of perceived behavioural control and subjective norm on motivational factors. In particular, our study not only answered the question of how the antecedents accounted for variance in behavioural intention, but also explained why this is so.

Practically, findings from this study can help policy-makers, administrators and music teacher educators develop and adopt effective strategies to improve the retention of preservice music teachers. Specifically, by acknowledging the importance and diverse impacts of the antecedents on behavioural intention, policy-makers could prioritize resources and activities in future development of preservice music teacher programmes. In addition, relationships between the antecedents and behavioural intention suggest that, to promote retention, steps will need to be taken to ensure that preservice music teachers have a positive attitude towards a teaching career, that their decisions are in line with beliefs from important others, and that the significance of a teaching career has been well communicated with them to inspire their intrinsic needs and desires. For example, scholars have proposed effective ways that could be adopted by policy-makers and educators to improve preservice music teachers’ attitudes, including reinforcing commitment and self-efficacy regarding music teaching (Conkling & Conkling, 2018; Pfitzner-Eden, 2016; Prichard, 2017) and developing professional identities of preservice teachers during teacher preparation (Ballantyne et al., 2012; Bennett & Chong, 2017; Kos, 2018). Policy-makers and educators should also be fully aware of the differentiated roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in training programmes and advertising campaigns. Intrinsic motivation plays a critical role in preservice music teachers’ retention, while extrinsic motivation may not work well for the promotion of teacher retention. To intrinsically motivate music preservice teachers, educators could emphasize the intrinsic career value during the programme training, help preservice teachers develop professional skills and illustrate the significance of a contribution made to society and children. Music teacher educators should also pay attention to their own opinions conveyed to preservice teachers during programme training, as they might be considered as important others who would largely influence preservice teachers’ career decision. It is important for educators to convey clear messages that a teaching career would be a good career choice, so that music preservice teachers could also form similar beliefs and are more likely to remain in the profession.

Limitations and future research

The limitations of this study should be noted and can be addressed by future studies. First, our sample included Chinese participants that were currently enrolled in preservice music teacher programmes for primary and secondary music education. Thus, findings from this study might be not generalizable to other types of preservice music teachers and other cultural contexts. Future studies could extend our study with specific samples and cultural contexts to address this limitation. Second, it is difficult to guarantee that the established relationships from a cross-sectional survey in this and previous studies (Dunn et al., 2018; Klassen & Chiu, 2011) would remain the same over time. It is likely that students’ perceptions might change over the years of study and career life. In fact, it is reported that employed teachers will still leave the profession, with high attrition rates for new and very experienced teachers (Klassen & Chiu, 2011). Therefore, the current results could serve as a baseline for future research to examine possible changing roles of the antecedents in preservice music teachers’ career decision with a longitudinal approach. Third, our study did not differentiate primary and secondary level pre-service music teachers, who may have different career motivations. Antecedents of career intention for the two types of pre-service music teachers may be different and await confirmation by future studies. Finally, while we limited our study scope to psychological factors, preservice music teachers’ behavioural intention to leave/remain in the profession can also be influenced by organizational and environmental factors (González-Moreno, 2012; Klassen & Chiu, 2011). It is meaningful to integrate multiple-level factors to extend our theoretical application and develop a more comprehensive framework so as to better understand preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession.

Conclusion

This study has extended our understanding of preservice music teachers’ career decisions. The findings provide support for the adequacy and efficacy of the integrated psychological decision model in understanding preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession. By testing a set of hypotheses among the model constructs, we identified several important antecedents (e.g., attitude, subjective norm and intrinsic motivation) that yielded significant, yet varied, impacts on preservice music teachers’ career decision. Research and practice could base retention strategies for preservice music teachers around these findings. Further research could develop more comprehensive models by incorporating multiple-level factors and examine the models with diverse sample profiles and in both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, to improve knowledge in this field of study.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was partly supported by the Graduate Educational Reform Programme of Shenzhen University (grant no. SZUGS2020JG08), the 2020 College Research Programme of Hunan Vocational College for Nationalities, and the Humanity and Social Science Youth foundation of Ministry of Education of China (grant no. 20YJCZH146).

ORCID iD

Da Tao

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