Comparative Study of Professional Motivation and Emotional Intelligence of Future Primary School Teachers (Based on a Kazakhstani-Spanish Sample)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2026.1.719.738Keywords:
educational process, educational and professional training, university corporate culture, educational-cognitive motive, social usefulness, emotion regulation, gender differentiationAbstract
Aim is to conduct an empirical investigation and provide a theoretical justification of the features of professional motivation and emotional intelligence of Kazakhstani and Spanish future primary school teachers, with an emphasis on cross-cultural factors and gender differentiation.
Methods. The Kazakhstani sample consisted of 57 primary school teachers who studied at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University (Kazakhstan). The Spanish sample included 54 primary school teachers enrolled at the University of Granada (Spain). Valid and reliable psychodiagnostic instruments were used.
Results. An advantage of KAZ samples in “professional motive” and “social usefulness” was recorded for the cross-cultural grouping variable. According to gender, eleven significant differences were identified in the Kazakhstani sample and three in the Spanish sample. Males in the Kazakhstani sample showed an advantage in “social status”, “comfort”, “avoidance motive”, “life support” and “social usefulness”, while females demonstrated a higher level of “creative activity”, “professional motive”, “social motive”, “communication”, “general activity”, and “emotional awareness”. This suggests that the modern education system in Kazakhstan is attractive to the male segment of the sample, which is driven by “social support”. In the Spanish sample, females show an advantage in the “life support” motive, “social motive”, and “social usefulness”, indicating a dominance of a general life-oriented focus within their personality structure. The correlation matrices revealed positive correlations for the educational-cognitive motive, comfort motive, and communication motive, along with an expected inverse relationship with the avoidance motive and life support motive.
Conclusions. It was noted that the corporate culture of the universities significantly influences the traditions and customs of educational and professional training. The identified significant differences and psychological correlates are of scientific interest; it is advisable to integrate them into the educational processes of universities.
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