In this narrative, combining elements of autobiography and of argument, I set out to do three things. First, I tell a story of one young person's journey into teaching (and, in due course, into teacher education). It's my story of my journey, but I hope it can shed a little light on others' journeys and on the possibilities for such journeys.…

Identifying factors influencing career preferences is relevant for faculty, education planners, and authorities when designing educational policies. However, these factors vary according to the socioeconomic context. We estimate a discrete choice model to investigate the determinants of career preferences using a survey of high school students (n…

Emotional intelligence (EI) and the motivations behind choosing a teaching career are recognized as important factors in teacher education research. In this study, we aimed to explore the EI profiles of students at the beginning of their initial teacher education and the associations of EI profiles with these students' motivations for choosing…

Teacher recruitment and retention in the United States has been deemed an issue across all disciplines and grade-levels. School-based agricultural education (SBAE) is no exception to this issue, where for decades a national shortage of qualified agriculture teachers has persisted. According to the 2021 Illinois Agricultural Education Annual…

The teaching profession profoundly changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether these changes were for the better or worse depends on individual teachers' perceptions. Pre-service teachers watched from the sidelines and their perceptions of the profession changed too, potentially implicating future career outcomes including career commitment,…

There has been a sustained interest in student perceptions about STEM fields and their choice of careers over the past few decades. Research has shown that there is a decline in students pursuing STEM careers, and this has raised global concern. Despite these issues, no unistructural, broad, parsimonious and unambiguous quantitative instrument…

This study focuses on the stories of four newly arrived women and their choices of vocational education and profession. The study highlights the women's life courses and addresses how their vocational skills from their home countries can influence their choices of vocational education and profession, and how these skills are utilised in Sweden.…

There is limited information concerning the experiences and career decision-making processes of male sex workers in South Korea. The aim of this study was to understand the motivations, career decisions, and decision-making processes of a group of male university students and graduates who decided to join the sex work profession in South Korea as…

A successful transition into adulthood is marked by occupational identity. From the developmental perspective, it is vital to examine the occupational perceptions of college students who grew up in distinct social and psychological environments from previous generations. To bridge the research gap, this study is to examine college students'…

Scholarly research on teachers' job satisfaction has recently attracted the attention of researchers. However, only few studies have focused on the factors that address teachers' job satisfaction, as to reveal whether and to what extent teachers' career motivations, especially social utility motivation, affect job satisfaction. Existing literature…

Despite social changes and the opening up of all professions to men and women, society continues to adhere to many stereotypes, and many professions are still considered to be feminine or masculine. In addition to gendered representations of occupations, there are also social representations linked to the social prestige associated with a…

Teacher education programs at small liberal arts colleges and universities are among the most vulnerable to decreased enrollment, yet they are uniquely positioned to provide well-rounded future teachers and educational leaders for a democratic society. To inform recruitment efforts, this study examined students' perceptions of teaching careers and…

Teachers with professional experience are important for improving students' learning experiences and understanding of practical industry skills in engineering. This study explores why upper-level professional engineers decided to enter teaching with their Master of Arts in Teaching or Master of Teaching programmes and how pre-service teachers with…

We survey undergraduate students at a large public university to understand the pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors driving their college major and career decisions with a focus on K-12 teaching. While the average student reports there is a 6% chance they will pursue teaching, almost 27% report a nonzero chance of working as a teacher in the…

Teacher recruitment is a pressing need in the United States. Equally important is the recruitment of more racial-minority teachers to help close the teacher-student diversity gap. We surveyed 300 undergraduates at our university regarding their perspectives on teaching careers--what they found attractive and deterring. Results from this survey and…