Though exceptions undoubtedly exist, women with higher aptitudes can ordinarily be expected to be more effective classroom teachers than those with lower aptitudes. It is therefore troubling to think that in the United States those entering the teaching profession in recent years have, on average, lower measured aptitudes than their predecessors.…

Recent teacher shortages have led teacher preparation programs to more actively recruit postbaccalaureate students into teaching. The purpose of this exploratory study was to gain useful recruitment information by investigating why postbaccalaureate students are interested in teaching as a new career. A survey was constructed based on interview…

This paper examines a random sample of applicants (n=203) accepted to the Faculty of Education, University of Toronto (Canada), and addresses the following questions: (1) what new teachers say about their reasons for entering the profession; (2) how those reasons align with current thinking about the qualities of teachers necessary to a changing…

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…

A report on music-related careers is divided into two sections. Section 1 provides summaries of occupations, including studio teaching, elementary-secondary education, postsecondary teaching, performance, composing and directing, the music industry (including the fields of instrument manufacturing, tuning, radio broadcasting, and recording), music…

This document addresses the questions of why young people choose teaching as a career and why a portion of those teachers decide to leave by surveying high school teachers in New Jersey. Two hundred forty-three secondary school teachers representing 32 public schools, 21 independent day schools, and 7 independent boarding schools participated in…

This study investigated the attitudes of high school seniors toward teaching as a career and their perceptions of the conditions associated with the teaching profession. Surveys were administered to 605 students with a return rate of 96.36 percent. Results suggest that a pool of minority high school students are available to be recruited into…

This paper analyzes the number and quality of young adults currently choosing teaching as a career in the United States and Japan. As a foundation for comparing recruitment to the teaching profession in the two countries, a conceptual framework analyzing the the process of individual self-selection, as well as institutional selection of…

This study sought to determine: (1) preservice teachers' perceptions of teaching as a career, and (2) differences in perceptions among groups of preservice teachers categorized on the basis of a variety of background variables. Subjects of the study were 101 education majors enrolled in a college in the Southeast. The survey instrument included 71…

Many of the social reasons that prompted certain people to choose teaching careers in the past, when the only options available to them were bleak in comparison, are no longer valid. Talented people who enter teaching must now do so out of a positive attraction to teaching. Unfortunately, teaching has few positive attractions and those few it does…

Teaching has a history in which women figure prominently. Driven by need and ambition, many women worked as schoolteachers in the nineteenth century, although not necessarily attracted by the work itself. This essay focuses on Charlotte Bronte, examining the constraints and values that account for her choice of teaching as a career. It is based on…

Members of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Public Relations Division were asked to nominate alumni, who were not full-time educators but who appeared to be excellent prospects for academic careers, for a study of attitudes of potential communication instructors toward teaching as a career move. The 27 nominees,…

Scores on standardized tests and high school grade point average are not always good predictors of the academic ability or potential success of students choosing to become teachers. An issue often overlooked when sampling the academic qualifications is the identification of students who are not education majors but who plan on becoming teachers.…

This study examined the attitudes, beliefs, and concerns of second-year students in the University of Virginia teacher education program. One of the purposes of the second year course is to guide students in the process of making a career choice. "Teaching as a Profession" is the first professional course in the program. Students are involved in…

The conference described in this paper was designed to provide a meaningful experience for a select group of individuals in strategic positions to have an impact on education policy for the state of Missouri. The report summarizes the scope and purpose the the conference, the conference process, and major issues and recommendations for action,…