Abstract:

This paper seeks to look into the attitude of contemporary Russian university teachers to the ongoing changes in their work and link it to the motives that underlie their professional choices. Since motivation as such is deeply rooted in the depth of personality, it may be useful to turn to the sources that contain descriptions of and insights into workers’ personalities. Instead of using conventional research methods they follow the way of cognition characteristic of all arts, i.e. artistic images of the world, the meaning-bearers that scale up information and make possible its storing in the long-term memory. The ability to single out the main thing is based on the image-bearing component of the mind. Thinking in images allows one to grasp the phenomenon in its entirety. This is the reason why the paper not only uses theoretical works and the results of the author’s empirical research (questionnaire offered to university teachers) but also images created by Russian writers and ideas expressed by artists.

The spread of digital methods in all areas of academic life causes serious changes in the nature of the work since the process of interaction between professor and student is becoming less personalised. While the youngest teachers probably find the new environment natural and easily acceptable, professors whose ideas of academia are at odds with some of the changes may feel profoundly dissatisfied.

The research intends to formulate the ideas that motivate Russian university teachers to stay in their profession, estimate their willingness to transform the way they work and outline approaches that have been effective in improving the outcomes of both teaching and research.

Keywords:

Attitude to work, digitization, motivation, professional satisfaction, teaching outcomes.