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…

Background: Individuals pursue teaching careers for numerous reasons, such as for instrumental or prosocial purposes. Aims: This study examined the personal (instrumental motivation) and social (prosocial motivation) utility of teaching as predictors of teaching quality in terms of clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive…

National and international statistics show that across disciplines there are many more PhD graduates than academic positions. In fact, more than half of graduates find their careers outside the academy--though the kinds of positions they accept, their work satisfaction, and the relevance of their PhDs is much less clear. As regards scholarly…

More and more Canadians are pursuing graduate studies, often to increase their chances of getting a better-paying job. Using data from the 2016 Census, this study examines the extent to which median earnings of workers with a master's degree or doctorate differ from their counterparts with a bachelor's degree, focusing on differences across fields…

This paper explores why beginning teachers in Saskatchewan chose to enter the profession and the importance of these motivations in their first year as teachers. More specifically, using survey and interview methodologies, the purpose of this study was to: (1) investigate the entry motivations of Saskatchewan beginning teachers; (2) determine if…

This study investigated and compared the reasons given by 40 preservice teachers in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and Ontario, Canada, for their career choice, focusing on whether their motivations reflected the marked difference in the status and remuneration of teachers in NSW and Ontario. Preservice teachers participated in in-depth,…

The themes of adult learning, cross-cultural learning, and transformative learning are common to many continuing educators working at universities across Canada. In this essay, I narrate my experiences as a mature, adult learner returning to university. Following a literature review and discussion of methodology, I begin this autobiographical…

The population for this study of specific attractions to teaching was defined as the students enrolled in the primary-junior and intermediate-senior consecutive teacher education programs at an Ontario Faculty of Education. Respondents were required to rate the importance of 15 desirable opportunities offered by teaching and were also asked to…

Students of Chinese and Punjabi-Sikh ancestry are underrepresented in teacher education programs in British Columbia. Interviews with 34 college students from these ethnic groups found that career choice was influenced most strongly by parental expectations, and was also affected by cultural sex role attitudes, English language proficiency, and…

English language sociological research on higher education in Canada from 1970-1980 is reviewed. Functionalists have tended to concentrate upon the task of describing the perceived functions of the educational system in the society and have usually considered major educational change as occurring in response to the requirements of the polity and…

These 15 papers include: (1) "Current Models and New Developments in Teacher Education in Austria" (Michael Schratz and Paul Josef Resinger); (2) "Teacher Education in Canada: Renewing Scholarly, Pedagogical, and Organizational Practices" (Therese LaFerriere, Nancy Sheehan, and Tom Russell); (3) "Current Models and New…

This paper is in response to an invitation from the Victorian Department of Education and Training to undertake a targeted review of effective teaching recruitment strategies. The paper provides a "snapshot" of what is happening in other States and Territories and in selected countries overseas. The main focus of the review is on the…