The motivation of tertiary teachers in Cambodian higher education has not received much
attention over the years. Specifically, very little is known about factors that motivate and demotivate
Cambodian tertiary teachers in choosing and remaining in their teaching careers.
The purpose of the study is to investigate: 1) the factors which influenced teachers to choose
teaching careers, 2) motivating and de-motivating factors associated with their teaching, and
3) motivations which may lead them to leave or stay in their teaching careers. It is important
to examine the motivational factors that are influential for Cambodian university teachers in
order to increase their teaching productivity so that the institutional effectiveness can be
enhanced which will lead to improvement in the quality of Cambodia higher education. This
research used a single exploratory case study within a qualitative methodology. The study
was conducted at two departments in a typical public university in Cambodia. The data was
collected through the implementation of one questionnaire that attracted 36 respondents and
one semi-structured interview held with each of 8 volunteer participants. Thematic analysis
was used to analyse interview data and open-ended questionnaire data. The findings of the
study reveal that intrinsic factors were more important than extrinsic factors in influencing
teacher motivation in becoming and remaining in teaching. However, extrinsic factors were
de-motivating teachers in their teaching and may lead them to leave the profession. The
findings are discussed in the context of some theories of motivation and previous empirical
studies. Recommendations are made regarding strategies to be used and what further research
can be undertaken to address the problem.