Teaching for life? Midlife narratives from female classroom teachers who considered leaving the profession

ABSTRACT

Career decision-making research has focused primarily on occupation change as a discrete event and emphasised occupational mobility. Not all of those who consider changing occupation do so though, and this study explored the narrative accounts of nine female teachers who had considered leaving the profession, but remained teaching at midlife. Narrative plotlines illustrated how this decision-making process evolved across the career span and revealed individual experiences ranging from reconciliation to on-going disaffection with teaching. Thematic analysis identified factors associated with occupational embeddedness in understanding why these women stayed and the potential for embedding issues to constrain women's occupational mobility. Implications for career counselling include exploring occupational decision-making across the career span, recognising the impact of embedding forces on women's teaching careers and supporting those who feel unable to leave this demanding occupation.

Keywords:

• occupational embeddedness
• teaching
• narrative plotlines
• career decisions
• women's careers