idual commitment to education and teaching excellence. Duval's conclusions, however, are based on his findings that the historical sample of teachers spent significant amounts of time in school and were involved in school-related activities beyond the context of their work day. What his study does not seem to take into account is that for a great deal of the 100 year period which he studied, school days were much longer than they are today, thus making it mandatory that teachers spend a significant amount of time at school. Moreover, during a major portion of this time period, teachers were not allowed to date and/or marry and remain in school. Thus, they may have had little to do beyond being involved in school-related activities. Indeed, without taking into account the vast changes in consciousness that characterize contemporary American teachers versus rural Vermont 1830 to 1930, it becomes difficult to understand how Duval's findings, even if valid, might generalize to today's teachers.
Like Duval, Arons (1989) also presents a conceptual analysis of teacher motivation. Specifically, he postulates that
"teachers are propelled by the deeper meaning of education." Arons feels that the reason teachers lose their motivation is because the teaching profession is more an art than it is a science and the existing structure of the educational system does not allow for teachers to be creative which is what art calls for. Arons (1989) further states:
An instructor cannot teach the essentials of his or her own craft to others; the drive to educate must originate within the individual. (p.1)
There are a number of questions that arise with respect to Arons' view of teacher motivation. First, there is a need for data establishing his notion that teachers are motivated by the "meaning of education." In this regard, it seems reasonable to suggest that many men and women are motivated to become teachers for s...