The Relationship Between Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Professional Commitment of Minnesota School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.v66i1.2771Keywords:
psychological needs, teacher retention, autonomy, competence, relatedness, turnover intentionAbstract
To address the increasing demand for school-based agriculture education (SBAE) teachers throughout the United States, it is imperative for teachers to remain in the profession. Although the literature has identified several factors influencing SBAE teacher retention, previous research has not examined psychological needs satisfaction. Our study viewed psychological needs through the lens of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2002), recognizing that the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are universal and innate needs essential for psychological functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2020). Our study aimed to examine if and to what extent psychological needs satisfaction was related to SBAE teachers’ professional commitment. One-hundred eighty-one teachers responded to an online questionnaire to gather quantitative data to assess participants’ psychological needs satisfaction and professional commitment. We examined the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and professional commitment using correlation, linear regression, independent-sample t-tests, and one-way ANOVA. Our results support earlier research (Collie et al., 2016; Lee & Nie, 2014; Mabekoje et al., 2016) that found people are drawn to needs-satisfying environments. Our most important finding was that psychological needs satisfaction affects SBAE teacher retention as results revealed psychological needs satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness (independently and collectively) had a significant and negative impact on turnover intention. Our study adds to the evidence that suggests psychological needs satisfaction affects teachers’ career choices and provides insight into this relationship in SBAE.
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