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.…

In this large-scale qualitative study, we use an emergent design to explore pre-service teachers' (PST) motivations to enter the profession. We open-code 2,798 PSTs responses to the directive, 'Explain why you decided to become a teacher', given over the course of a six-year period from one large Texas teacher preparation programme. Using constant…

In Ireland state funded support services provide Continuing Professional Development for teachers and school leaders. These services are staffed with teachers seconded from their schools on an annual basis for a maximum of five years. This study investigated the learning and experience of teachers seconded to a national support service, the…

Background: Numerous studies have explored pre-service teachers' motivation for choosing teaching as a career and the relations of pre-service teachers' motivation profile membership to long-term consequences. In contrast, little is still known about certain predictors and the more proximal consequences of pre-service teachers' motivation profile…

There is very little known about why Black elementary educators enter the profession, their professional preparation and experiences, and factors that retain them in the profession. Given that Black elementary educators are underrepresented in the literature, this study filled a gap in the literature by investigating their: (1) reason for becoming…

The teacher workforce does not look much like the adult population or the students they serve. Across the country, only 21% of teachers are from historically disadvantaged racial groups compared to 35% of working-age adults and 49% of students. Simple math suggests that the diversity gap between students and teachers will only close when teachers…

Background/Context: School districts across the United States face persistent difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers (García & Weiss, 2019; Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022). Over the last decade, every state in the south has faced a growing teacher shortage, with some facing shortages in all grades and subjects (U.S. Department of…

The present study examines future teachers' motivations for teaching using the FIT-Choice (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) scale. The focus thereby is on subject interest, a factor that has rarely been accounted for by FIT-Choice studies although it is considered one of the most important factors to students for choosing teaching as a career.…

Data about the teaching profession in Indiana make clear the potential for a full-blown public crisis unless policymakers take decisive action this year. Indiana teacher pay dropped 15 percent between 2000 and 2017 when adjusted for inflation, moving from $59,986 to $50,554--and Indiana teachers earn 17 percent less than college graduates in other…

With the teaching profession under attack from political, social, and economic forces, what is attracting individuals to seek out careers in education? Sort out the facts from the biases with evidence to guide your informed, thoughtful decision about teaching as a viable career option.

Research has focused almost exclusively on International Teaching Assistants'(ITA) experiences as instructors, overlooking the ITA training class. This has led to the marginalization of Pre-Service ITAs in the literature. The locus of potentially important learning, a descriptive, multiple case study examined the investment (Darvin & Norton,…

Teaching motivation issues are well-researched in several countries. However, these issues have been rarely investigated in the Indonesian context. This study investigated motivational factors that influence pre-service teachers to enter English teacher training and their perspectives of English teaching as a career option. It comprised a survey…

In the UK, the provision of accelerated undergraduate programmes is responding to the needs of an increasingly diverse and career-focused student body and a flexible, ever-changing labour market. These fast track degrees are particularly new in education where recent developments in school autonomy and teacher training have had consequences on the…

Over the past 15 years, Finland has performed very well on international student achievement tests. Although Finland's results have slightly deteriorated from those at the beginning of the 21st century, Finnish students still perform very well in all comparative international surveys such as PISA, TIMSS and ICCS. The Finnish school system seems to…

The paper is based on interviews with a sample of 200 teachers from the Limpopo province about their life histories, particularly those aspects related to their choice of teaching as their first career path, and their expectations, experiences and perceptions in this regard. It argues that current approaches to teacher education in South Africa…