Career Switchers: Teaching in K-8

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine what motivated nontraditional students to go into teaching and reveal why they were sure, by their second year of experience, that they would stay in teaching. This study used the "participant as ally-essentialist approach" [1] to understand the participants' stories. The primary data source was focus groups and one to three one-on-one follow-up interviews with nine participants who were second-year nontraditional elementary or middle school teachers. Each participant entered the profession by the same program, and all of the participants came from the same site. Their ages ranged between 22 and 45 years. The researcher [2] developed eight portraits of participants who talked about their career progression. These portraits yielded three major findings. First, the participants revealed their commitment to teaching, generally planning to stay in the career until they retired. Another major aspect in the portraits was that many of the participants used their earlier life experience and maturity in their classrooms. The last major finding revealed that a significant proportion of teachers found the profession by accident. The results of this study suggest that, with increasing numbers of nontraditional students, teacher education programs need to take into account the assignments, delivery methods, and class content. When placing teachers in schools for internships and student teaching, the coordinator should be aware of their status. In addition, school districts should be aware that this population is committed to adding value to the school as soon as they arrive.