This study explores the main motives inspiring the choice of the teaching profession. To this end, a group of almost 400 Italian students enrolled in a training programme for pre-primary and primary school teachers was surveyed through questionnaires and discursive interviews on the main reasons for choosing a career as a teacher, and in particular for choosing to become a teacher for young children. Our findings differ from those of most of the studies carried out in countries at a comparable level of social and economic development, since among the future teachers questioned there was no clear predominance of altruistic or intrinsic motivations. Moreover, our findings are contrasting, as the responses to the self-administered standard questionnaires show a certain appreciation of the material benefits of the profession, whereas only disinterested motives emerge from face-to-face interviews.