“I never thought I would become a teacher”: Estonian and Finnish students’ motivation to become mother tongue and literature teachers

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the motivation of Estonian and Finnish students to become mother tongue and liter ature teachers. The empirical data were collected through an e-questionnaire distributed to all graduating student teachers in this field at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and the University of Helsinki, Finland, in the spring term of 2014 (26 + 35 students). The respondents expressed their opinions on 27 statements on a scale ranging from one to four, with the option of commenting on each one. The analysis of the data showed that the majority of students in both countries were strongly or moderately motivated to teach and thought that their subject was very important on the societal level. The most significant difference between the groups was in how the social status of the teaching profession was perceived: according to the respondents, teachers are poorly or rather poorly valued in Estonia, and highly or rather highly valued in Finland.