Charting the course for the teaching profession: The energizing and sustaining role of motivational forces

This commentary to the special issue on teacher motivation began by considering certain educational truisms that were reinforced by the findings of the contributed articles. For instance, contributing authors strengthened commonly held perceptions that teaching is a challenging profession and that those challenges are both internal and external in nature. Next, several thought-provoking trends that emerged from the collected articles were shared, such as the recognition that salient attributes of those entering the teaching profession can be identified and some of those attributes have a character that transcends national boundaries. On the basis of the truisms and trends described, future directions or next steps are considered including the need to move beyond self-report data and to articulate a developmental model of the teaching profession.