Who Chooses Teaching and Why? Profiling Characteristics and Motivations Across Three Australian Universities

Abstract

In this large‐scale Australian study, we profile the background characteristics and teaching motivations for individuals entering teacher education across three major established urban teacher provider universities in the Australian States of New South Wales and Victoria. Our recently developed and validated “FIT‐Choice” (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) Scale determines the strength of influence for a range of motivations from individuals choosing teaching as a career. Findings build upon and extend previous literature relating to reasons for teaching as a career choice, which have not systematically applied current motivational models to developing explanations. Participants were the entire cohorts (N = 1,653) of first‐year pre‐service teacher education candidates at three universities in Sydney and Melbourne. Results provide a profile of a large sample of pre‐service teachers whose decision to enrol in a teacher education program has been made at a time when the mass media and the general public have increasingly looked upon teaching as a poor career choice. Our new theoretical approach allows us to recommend strategies for teacher recruitment campaigns, based on a comprehensive understanding of individuals' motivations for choosing teaching.

†Ordering of names is alphabetical for equal first authors

Acknowledgements

Preparation of this paper was supported in part by institutional grants from the University of Western Sydney, the University of Sydney, and Monash University. We wish to thank Dr Ray Debus from the University of Sydney for his suggestions and feedback on an earlier version of the paper, and Professor Jacquelynne Eccles from the University of Michigan for valuable discussions about our ideas.

Notes

†Ordering of names is alphabetical for equal first authors

1. This factor includes items which tap the extent to which teaching provides time for individuals to pursue other activities (for example, length of vacations, length of working day). Those items were initially designed to tap a “bludging” factor (an Australianism which refers to expending the least effort possible), which interestingly was empirically indistinguishable from the items tapping the extent to which teaching provides for family time (for example, fitting with family commitments, allowing for more family time). Rather than signaling the pejorative “bludging”, it appears that individuals who rate vacation times and working hours as important to their choice of teaching as a career are making these judgments in relation to significant quality of life considerations.

2. From 2005, UWS is now offering teacher education programs solely in graduate mode.

3. Applicable to Monash University and the University of Western Sydney undergraduates only.

4. UWS actively recruits graduate teacher education candidates from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.