The Relationship Between Achievement Goals and Organizational Commitment of Remote Teachers Under Educational Reform: The Mediating Effect of Social Network Behavior and Multi-Group Analysis
Author: Karen Hui-Jung Chen (Department of Education, National Taipei University of Education)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 70, No. 2
Date：June 2025
Pages：151-193
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202506_70(2).0005
Abstract：
Remote education has garnered increasing attention in Taiwan, with the Ministry of Education implementing measures such as expanding publicly funded teaching positions and offering financial incentives to address challenges. While teacher turnover rates in remote areas have decreased in recent years, they remain significantly higher than the national average. Approximately 20% of teachers in remote schools are substitute teachers, compared to 15% in urban schools. This disparity underscores the need for sustained efforts to stabilize and normalize teaching staff in remote elementary schools. Achieving this stability is critical for ensuring educational equity and effectively implementing the 12-year Basic Education curriculum, which positions teachers as pivotal change agents.
High turnover rates in remote areas are closely linked to challenges such as diverse student needs, heavy workloads, and multicultural dynamics. Enhancing teacher retention requires fostering positive teaching motivation, strengthening professional knowledge and skills, securing school support, promoting collaboration among colleagues, and understanding the remote teaching environment. These factors contribute to building organizational commitment, which is essential for reducing teacher turnover (Gaikhorst et al., 2017; Watt & Richardson, 2008). Thus, providing adequate support for remote teachers to increase their organizational commitment remains a critical focus.
This study examines teachers’ achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance) as independent variables, with social networking behaviors (internal and external) as mediating variables, to explore their influence on organizational commitment (affective and normative). It also investigates differences in these relationships between remote and urbanr teachers.
A review of literature was conducted and it revealed that Teacher motivation is a key factor in professional growth and retention. Motivated teachers engage actively in professional development and exhibit greater commitment to their roles. However, motivation is often overlooked in professional practice. Butler’s (2007) Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) categorizes goals into mastery-approach, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance. Mastery-oriented teachers are more likely to pursue professional growth opportunities, enhancing their teaching efficacy (Butler & Shibaz, 2008; Han & Gao, 2023). Building on AGT, this study examines how achievement goals influence social networking behaviors and organizational commitment, particularly in remote contexts. Social networks play a vital role in professional development, especially for teachers in resource-constrained remote schools (Fullan & Hargreaves, 2012). Internal networks (within schools) and external networks (beyond schools) are critical for resource sharing, collaboration, and support. However, their role in shaping teacher motivation and commitment remains underexplored in non-Western contexts. Organizational commitment, encompassing affective and normative components, reflects teachers’ connection to their schools and influences retention. Participation in professional learning communities strengthens social networks, enhancing organizational commitment (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).
This study employed a survey-based quantitative research design. In the pretest phase, 198 valid responses were analyzed to refine the questionnaire. The formal survey yielded 526 valid responses from 600 distributed questionnaires (response rate: 87.7%) across 57 schools. Data were analyzed using bootstrapping (5,000 samples) and AMOS 22.0 software to explore mediating effects. Multi-group analysis was conducted to compare structural relationships between remote and urbanr teachers.
The key findings revealed that:
1. The relationships between mastery-oriented goals and social networking behaviors are different from urban teachers to remore school teachers. Mastery-oriented goals significantly predicted internal and external networking behaviors for urban teachers but showed no significant effect for remore teachers. This highlights the need for additional support and resources in remote schools to help mastery-oriented teachers build and leverage professional networks effectively.
2. Cultural differences in the relationships between Performance-Avoidance Goals, social networking behaviors and organizational commitment. Performance-avoidance goals positively predicted internal networking behaviors for both urbanr and remote teachers, indirectly influencing organizational commitment (affective and normative commitment) through these behaviors. This finding diverges from Western research, which typically associates performance-avoidance goals with negative outcomes (Elliot & Hulleman, 2017). In Asian collectivist cultures, avoiding performance failures fosters group integration, motivating teachers to maintain strong collegial relationships (King, 2016; Świątkowski & Dompnier, 2021). This cultural contrast demonstrates the positive role of performance-avoidance goals in collectivist contexts, contrary to Western predictions.
3. Comparison the effect of social networking as a mediator for urbanr and remore teachers. Internal networking behaviors mediated the relationship between achievement goals and organizational commitment for both remote and urbanr teachers. However, for remote teachers, mastery-oriented goals did not significantly affect organizational commitment, likely due to limited professional development opportunities. In contrast, performance-avoidance goals in remote teachers indirectly enhanced organizational commitment through internal networks.
4. Organizational Commitment in Remote Schools. Remote teachers exhibited higher normative commitment than their urbanr counterparts, likely due to strong relational ties within their schools and a sense of obligation to remain in their positions. This result is consistent with the literature analysis in that normative commitment is an individual’s obligation to take actions that benefit one’s school, or an individual’s perceived obligation to remain in school (Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). Due to the small number of teachers in remote schools, teachers help and support each other and have close relationships with colleagues in the school through internal network behaviors, which creates pressure to leave the organization and increases normative commitment (Huang, 2016).
5. Eastern and western cultural differences affetc teachers’ achievement goals. This study highlights how cultural differences affect teachers’ achievement goals. While Western research often emphasizes the individualistic impacts of achievement goals, this study found that collectivist cultural values in Asia, such as group integration and harmony, influence teachers’ behavior differently. For example, performance-avoidance goals can have adaptive outcomes in Asian contexts, reflecting cultural priorities that emphasize relationships and group cohesion. These findings extend the application of Achievement Goal Theory to teachers, emphasizing the need for more cross-cultural research to explore how cultural contexts influence teacher behavior.
In conclusion, this study explored the relationships between teachers’ achievement goals, social networking behaviors, and organizational commitment using data from remote and urbanr schools. It underscores the importance of tailoring support to address the unique challenges faced by remote teachers. This study suggests to develop school-based strategies to foster problem-solving and consensus-building, providing mastery-oriented teachers with professional growth opportunities. In addition, leverage collectivist cultural values to transform performance-avoidance goals into drivers of team cohesion and professional development. And increase resources and support for remote schools to strengthen internal networking behaviors and expand professional development opportunities. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and educators, providing a foundation for revising remote teacher training programs and related policies.
Keywords：
networking behavior, affective commitment, achievement goal, organizational commitment, normative commitment