Governments recognise that careers guidance, underpinned by accurate labour market information, can help learners make post-secondary education choices that match their interests, aptitudes and abilities, and lead to rewarding employment. For this reason, they have invested in building linked education/employment information systems and other…

The paper presents the challenges of cross-country and cross-cultural research on the motivation to become a mathematics teacher based on data from the "Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics" ("TEDS-M"). Referring to studies from cross-cultural psychology, measurement invariance (MI) of constructs representing…

Many studies of teacher motivation have been conducted in different contexts over time. However, until fairly recently there has not been a reliable measure available to allow comparisons across samples and settings. This has resulted in an abundance of findings which cannot be directly compared or synthesised. The FIT-Choice instrument offers the…

Few men around the world work in daycare settings, nursery schools or kindergartens. Yet wherever they are found, men who are perceived to have crossed the gender boundary in their choice of profession are widely acclaimed as gifted educators and excellent caregivers. Policy makers who care about providing quality education for young children need…

Because professionalism in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is measured by standards relating to caring, men in the field are often held to expectations associated with female behaviors. This research examines the tensions arising from this encounter and explores alternative solutions which male ECEC workers around the world have…

Motivations for preservice teachers' choice of teaching as a career were investigated using the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale (FIT-Choice scale; Watt & Richardson, 2007). This scale was initially developed and validated in the Australian context; our study applied it across international samples from Australia, the United States,…

Comparing survey responses of U.S. rural youth (1,142 males and 1,148 females) with those of Norwegian rural youth (660 males and 650 females at the comprehensive school level and 237 males and 192 females at the secondary level), youth career orientations were analyzed in terms of career desiderata and sex differentials, social class origins, and…

Focusing specifically on teaching as a career goal among rural youth in Norway, Germany, and the United States, this cross-national comparative study took into account the general patterning of career ambitions in each society--upward mobility opportunities, status attainment strategies, and organizational character of the educational systems…