Motivational and perceptual differences between Hispanic and White preservice teachers

ABSTRACT

A large gap exists between the percentage of teachers and of students who are Hispanic. To better understand this gap, we compared Hispanic and White preservice teachers’ motivations for becoming teachers and perceptions of the teaching profession during their application to a large traditional teacher certification program at a Hispanic-serving institution. Analysis of 1,600 survey responses revealed many statistically significant differences, and many of the differences across ethnicity varied by the type of teacher certification sought. Suggestions for how teacher preparation programs can design and market their programs to recruit more Hispanic preservice teachers are explored.

KEYWORDS:

• preservice teachers
• Latino/a
• FIT-Choice
• teacher motivation
• exploratory factor analysis
• quantitative research
• secondary education