Exploring the influence of motivation and work environment on the job satisfaction of foreign English teachers in international schools in Surat Thani

This study focused on the motivation of foreign English teachers (FETs) in Surat Thani Province, Thailand. It aimed to explore why these teachers choose to work in Thailand—specifically in Surat Thani—the nature of their motivation, the factors that influence their decision to stay, their long-term commitment and job satisfaction, and strategies for supporting and retaining them. A convergent mixed methods design was employed to investigate the factors affecting job satisfaction and career intentions among this target population. There were two types of data used in this study: the quantitative data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 80 respondents chosen purposively and conveniently and the qualitative data were generated through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with three purposively selected key informants who had extensive experience. Survey structures were reviewed based on summary statistics (means and standard deviations), and multiple regression analyses were performed to assess three independent variables (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and work environment) on one dependent variable: job satisfaction. The stepwise multiple regression of the study confirmed that there were significant factors at the level of 0.05 affecting foreign English teachers’ job satisfaction, namely intrinsic motivation (β = 0.799, p < 0.05), work environment (β = 0.446, p < 0.05), and extrinsic motivation (β = 0.370, p < 0.05). The three factors accounted for 50.6% of the variance in foreign English teachers' job satisfaction. This paper provides useful recommendations for school administrators trying to enhance English education and more information on teacher motivation in rural Thailand, which is now lacking.