With a growing shortage of teachers of color in public schools, the author asserts a necessity for more Critical Educators of Color--educators from racially marginalized backgrounds willing to confront injustices plaguing under-resourced communities of color. Rooted in her formative K12 experiences as a student of color exposed to critical…

This interview-based qualitative study is concerned with the recruitment of secondary teachers in Malawi. This study shows a range of perspectives for pursuing a teacher training course: failure to follow a desired career, springboard to other careers, to upgrade, and teaching out of vocation. It shows that trainee teachers held a range of images…

Everyone agrees that a person can not have good education without good teachers, but how do teachers see their profession? Why do people become teachers, what are their frustrations, and what reforms do they think would improve their work? This report is designed to learn more about how to support and retain the most promising teachers. The study…

Over the course of the student teaching experience, a student teacher's intention to teach can increase, decrease, or remain the same. The purpose of this study was to explore differences in student teachers that were representative of each category. Teaching intention of 103 student teachers at four universities in 2005-2006 exhibited little…

According to the research literature, there are three reasons that draw teachers into teaching: (1) gender-related reasons, (2) altruistic reasons, and (3) monetary rewards and job flexibility. Based on data from three teacher preparation programs, this article argues that teachers who were trained at elite colleges and who chose teaching in urban…

As English is now promoted as an academic subject in primary and secondary schools in China, creating an enormous demand for qualified English teachers, there is a need to understand English teachers' motivation and commitment to the teaching career. In this paper, the author reports on a biographical study of 12 teachers who taught in schools in…

A number of recent studies have shown that teachers are unevenly distributed across schools: compared to other students, students who are low-income, minority, limited-English proficient, low-performing, and/or from urban contexts tend to be taught by substantially less qualified teachers. Consequently, many researchers have analyzed how teachers…

This article profiles six educators who have taught for as long as two generations. These educators are the following: (1) Hazel Wilson--teaching 47 years; (2) Agnes Zeiger--teaching 61 years; Rose Gilbert--teaching 51 years; (4) Ellie Johnson--teaching 52 years; (5) Roy Clare--teaching 48 years; and (6) Carrie Hansen--54 years in education. These…

Discernment about when to make career moves is often clouded by a host of competing desires and motivations. In this essay the author peels back layers of vocational choices in order to begin to reveal motivations behind those choices. Questions pertaining to notions of prestige, imaginative projection into a new position, clarity about what one…

This booklet is designed to provide middle and secondary school teachers with ideas on how to involve students in activities that allow them to explore the teaching profession. The ideas can be adapted to fit the particular needs of the teachers and students involved and can also be supplemented by students' and teachers' own ideas. Sections…

This study explores how twenty-eight women graduates of a liberal arts college renegotiate personal and professional identities over a ten year period. Approximately half of these women entered college planning to pursue a career in medicine; the other half indicated some interest in the field of education. Each participant was interviewed six…

This paper focuses on a cohort of B.Ed. students' understandings about social difference and social justice as recorded in their professional journals in the first semester of third year. It shows that their reasons for choosing teaching as a career, reflections on their school experiences and discussions about future students are grounded in the…

This booklet addresses minority group teachers and teacher candidates and provides information on the career opportunities that are available in independent elementary and secondary schools. A brief description of private schools includes notes on how they differ from public schools in governance, finances, curriculum, and student and faculty…

A study was conducted to provide educators with information about reasons why college bound high school students are or are not interested in teaching as a career. Data collected from responses to questionnaires completed by 4,349 students were analyzed. Implications discussed in this report include: (1) The number of students expressing interest…

Reflects on interviews with teachers who were asked reasons for choosing teaching as an occupation, their perceptions of teachers' major functions and purposes within the classroom, and how these coincide or conflict with their perceptions of self. (MLF)