Exploring the employment motivation, job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of university English instructors in public institutions: a Chinese case study analysis

Language is central to culture, communication, and learning, and in China both Chinese and English play vital roles across educational levels. English is particularly prominent in higher education, embedded in curricula, degree requirements, and national testing (e.g., CET-4/6). Demand for English instruction has been high, with estimates pre-pandemic of significant teacher shortages. China’s higher education has expanded rapidly since 1999, with most institutions state-owned, making the sector largely public in nature. This study explores why English instructors choose employment in Chinese state universities when potentially more lucrative private or overseas opportunities exist, and examines their job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The rationale is personal, professional, and academic: language teaching is demanding; job satisfaction relates to performance, quality, and retention; and there is a desire to bridge practice-research-theory gaps. Prior work has focused more on private institutions or other subsets in public universities, leaving a gap concerning public university English teachers, including both home nationals and expatriates. This study takes a case study approach to portray their employment motivation, job satisfaction, and dissatisfaction.

Teacher motivation is complex, dynamic, and contextually situated. Influences operate at global, contextual, and situational levels and are culturally and socially mediated. For language teachers, common motives include love of languages, interest in culture, and push-pull factors, with altruistic, intrinsic, and extrinsic drivers (including employment packages). The same factors can also demotivate. Few comprehensive frameworks target language teacher employment motivation; Morris (2021) proposes a tripartite framework of employment factors, personal considerations, and convenience. Teacher job satisfaction is shaped by intrinsic/altruistic fulfillment, interpersonal relationships, school climate and community, teaching and learning characteristics (e.g., autonomy, novelty), recognition and progression, employment package, and non-work factors via spillover. Job satisfaction influences effectiveness, discipline, and retention. For Chinese university EFL teachers, prior studies note relatively high satisfaction with positive links to resilience and well-being. Teacher dissatisfaction can stem from negative interactions (students/colleagues/management), workload and role issues, lack of recognition and progression (training, promotion), employment conditions (remuneration, security), and external personal concerns. Resource shortages, overcrowding, and limited recognition have been identified as dissatisfaction sources. Some earlier Chinese studies found high dissatisfaction rates among university EFL teachers. A comprehensive picture integrating motivations and (dis)satisfaction for both home and expatriate English instructors in public universities remains underexplored, motivating the present study.

Paradigm and stance: Pragmatism guides the study design, aligned with aims. Ontology/epistemology are relativist. Design: Exploratory, multiple case study with semi-structured interviews to elicit in-depth perspectives on employment motivation, job satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. Research questions: RQ1: What motivates English language teachers to seek employment in Chinese state universities? RQ2: To what extent, and in which areas, are English language teachers satisfied with their job? RQ3: To what extent, and in which areas, are English language teachers dissatisfied with their job? Context and participants: A key national public university (Project 211) in an affluent eastern Chinese city, over a century old. Two participants: one Chinese English language teacher (Chen) and one British expatriate English language teacher (Edward), both male, aged 40–50, with doctorates; Chen on a permanent contract, Edward on annual contracts; both with over 15 years’ experience. Sampling: Purposive, to provide rich insights and contrasting perspectives due to differing backgrounds and trajectories. Data collection: Two separate online interview sessions per participant in spring 2023, each under one hour. Data analysis: Transcription followed by familiarisation and coding using a dual inductive-deductive approach, informed by prior methodological exemplars. Ethics: Study adhered to British Educational Research Association (2018) guidelines, the Data Protection Act (2018), and institutional ethical requirements; informed consent obtained; anonymity assured; right to withdraw maintained.

- Employment motivation: Both participants’ decisions were primarily extrinsically driven. Chen’s path into university English teaching was shaped by degree choice, learning experiences, national labor market demand during an English boom, and lack of alternative opportunities in desired media work; convenience of continuing within a familiar system played a role. Edward’s entry was opportunistic and pragmatic (injury leading to CELTA, accessible recruitment, absence of family ties, desire to live/travel abroad), with push-pull factors and convenience (4–6 weeks from application to arrival) prominent. Altruistic motives and intrinsic love of teaching were not explicitly foregrounded by either at entry. - Job satisfaction: Chen reported satisfaction with salary and benefits, long vacations, and high social status of university teachers; job security and income stability during COVID-19 increased satisfaction. Edward valued autonomy, flexibility, creative teaching freedom, relatively light workloads, and very positive student interactions; the role provided formative professional growth early in his career and a pleasant lifestyle context. - Job dissatisfaction: Chen perceived institutional emphasis and rewards skewed toward research over teaching, leading to frustration; he experienced limited guidance/support for professional development, high/possibly unattainable standards for promotion, and prolonged demotivation and self-doubt. Edward experienced weak institutional integration/community, limited recognition and progression pathways for expatriates on short-term contracts, and an employment package inadequate for savings or family support, especially compared with better-paid private/transnational options. - Home vs expatriate differences: Home national (Chen) was satisfied with employment package and status/security; expatriate (Edward) found compensation/job security insufficient for long-term retention and lacked integration. Both shared concerns about recognition/progression and, to varying degrees, financial considerations and career development trajectories. - Framework adaptations: Findings support weighting employment factors and convenience as dominant in initial motivation and highlight differentiated weightings for job satisfaction/dissatisfaction factors (e.g., employment package, recognition/progression, teaching/learning, personal interactions) for home vs expatriate teachers.

The study addresses RQ1 by showing that extrinsic employment-related factors and convenience predominantly motivated both a home national and an expatriate to enter Chinese public university English teaching, with minimal explicit altruistic or intrinsic drivers at entry, aligning with and extending Morris (2021) and contrasting with studies emphasizing intrinsic/altruistic motives. For RQ2, sources of satisfaction diverged: home national satisfaction centered on salary, benefits, job security, vacations, and social status; expatriate satisfaction emphasized autonomy, light loads, and positive student relations. For RQ3, both experienced dissatisfaction in recognition/progression and, to varying extents, the employment package; Chen cited research-over-teaching reward bias and limited developmental support, while Edward cited weak institutional integration, short-term contracts, and uncompetitive pay versus private sector alternatives. These findings underscore the importance of tailoring HR, recognition, and development policies to heterogeneous staff groups (home vs expatriate), enhancing supportive climates and progression pathways, and considering weighted, temporal models of motivation and (dis)satisfaction for policy and leadership practice. They have implications for teacher wellbeing, retention, and institutional effectiveness.

The paper illuminates how two doctorate-level English instructors in a Chinese public university were primarily extrinsically motivated to enter their roles and experienced nuanced patterns of satisfaction (e.g., security and status for the home national; autonomy and student relations for the expatriate) alongside shared dissatisfaction in recognition/progression and aspects of the employment package. Institutions seeking to recruit and retain quality language teachers should calibrate employment packages, recognition systems (balancing research and teaching), progression pathways, and community integration efforts, especially for expatriate staff on short-term contracts. Future research directions include: examining the prominence of altruism and intrinsic interests within pragmatically driven contexts; larger-scale quantitative studies across public and private institutions; broader qualitative studies across providers and disciplines; and targeted investigations into management/leadership and wellbeing/mental health as interrelated domains.

The study is limited by its small sample size (two participants) and single-institution context, which constrains generalizability. Retrospective accounts may be affected by recall bias over time, and individual experiences may not capture the breadth of teacher experiences in Chinese public universities or other contexts.