Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: a perspective of pre-service teachers from a Turkish context

Kemal Yüce,Esin Y Şahin,Fatih Kana,Ömer Koçer

doi:10.1007/s12564-013-9258-9

Kemal Yüce, Esin Y Şahin + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9258-9

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Abstract

As teaching is a nation-building profession, the career motivations of pre-service teachers are worth exploring. This study examines the career motivations of 283 Turkish pre-service teachers who have chosen teaching as a career. Accordingly, they were asked questions about deciding to teach, career perceptions, and major expectations. A profile of the participants was then developed by analyzing their responses in quantitative and qualitative ways as being descriptive, statistical, and inductive steps. It is seen that extrinsic, altruistic, and intrinsic motivations all play a role when individuals choose teaching as a career. In addition, although altruistic motives are very dominant for females, mercenary-based extrinsic motives are dominant for males. Associatively, teaching is further desired as a first profession by females. In light of the findings, we give suggestions for teacher training institutions and policy makers.

Highlights

What are the reasons motivating young people to choose teaching as a career? Over the last three decades, the reasons for choosing teaching as a career have been a research topic, and it is likely to be an ongoing issue for scholars as long as efforts continue to be made for the recruiting and retaining of teachers.Within the teacher education literature, numerous positive and negative factors have been noted as influencing young people’s decision to pursue a career in teaching
Altruistic motives are very dominant for females, mercenary-based extrinsic motives are dominant for males
To contextualize the notion of career motivation, the participants were asked about their reasons for deciding to teach, career perceptions, and major expectations from teaching

Summary

Introduction

What are the reasons motivating young people to choose teaching as a career? Over the last three decades, the reasons for choosing teaching as a career have been a research topic, and it is likely to be an ongoing issue for scholars as long as efforts continue to be made for the recruiting and retaining of teachers.Within the teacher education literature, numerous positive and negative factors have been noted as influencing young people’s decision to pursue a career in teaching. What are the reasons motivating young people to choose teaching as a career? Over the last three decades, the reasons for choosing teaching as a career have been a research topic, and it is likely to be an ongoing issue for scholars as long as efforts continue to be made for the recruiting and retaining of teachers. Within the teacher education literature, numerous positive and negative factors have been noted as influencing young people’s decision to pursue a career in teaching. Teaching is a profession that requires a high degree of responsibility and altruism. It seems such difficult task motivating young people for teaching profession. Given that ‘‘teaching appears to be an occupation considered central to a country’s development and well-being’’ (Watt et al 2012, p. 1), there is an understandable concern for the generation with respect to the mission of nation-building (Manuel and Hughes 2006; Moran et al 2001; Skilbeck and Connell 2003; Taylor 2006)

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