Career Attractions for Social Subjects Teachers of the 1990s

Abstract

This study explores the reasons why 32 student teachers in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education course at the University of Queensland claim that they want to be teachers. All 32 student teachers were part of a social education curriculum cohort. The study was largely informed by the work of Lortie (1975) though the instrument used to measure attractions to teaching was considerably different and the results of our study were strikingly different. Among the findings are that the student teachers in our sample were motivated by altruism. Interesting differences based on age and gender are noted.