Pre -service African American males' self -reported perceptions of motivation in teaching

In the American public school systems, data show that African-Americans in general and African American males in particular are among the lowest academic achievement group in our nation. Even though the minority teacher shortage research data indicate that African American males' achievement increases with African American male teachers, it also point out that there is a serious teacher shortage in general, an alarming shortage of males, and of African American males in particular. Traditionally, our schoolteachers have been mostly Caucasian and female and ethnic minorities have always been under-represented in our public teaching force. This growing ethnic and gender contrast between the public school student populations and their teachers is considered to be a vital concern in educational circles. Various data indicate that this imbalance of men and minorities in the teaching profession is the fuel perpetuating the student achievement gap in our nation's school systems. This research study attempts to explore the issues of motivation of pre-service minority teachers in general and African American males in particular. The approach of this research study is quantitative, non-experimental and the research design is descriptive. The triangulation research technique (survey, questionnaire, interview and document review) is used to gather information and control for biases. The overall finding of this research is that African American males, like most individuals, are inclined to be intrinsically motivated to enter the teaching profession. This finding substantiates Moran, O'Neil and other researchers' investigations on the motivation of people entering the field of teaching.