Untitled

Why choose teaching? An international review of empirical studies exploring student teachers’ career motivations and levels of commitment to teaching

“…In contrast to the findings from numerous European, North American and Australian studies, research conducted in very different socio-cultural contexts such as in China (Su et al, 2001); Turkey (Kilinç, , Brunei (Yong, 1995), Zimbabwe (Chivore, 1988), Malaysia (Yaakub, 1990), Jamaica (Bastick, 2000) and Malawi (Mtika & Gates, 2011) has found that extrinsic values such as teacher salaries, financial assistance during teacher education studies, career status, job security or anticipated opportunities to move from teaching into other more desirable professions are regarded as important or even most influential reasons for choosing a teaching career. In Chivore's (1988) Zimbabwean study of 255 non-graduate secondary student teachers, the highest-ranked factor in determining the attractiveness of the secondary teaching profession was that salaries of secondary teachers were attractive relative to those in the public and private sector (Chivore, 1988).…”

“…As discussed by Brookhart & Freeman (1992), it is obvious from these statistics, that certain student populations are overrepresented which poses difficulties regarding the generalizability of findings. Many of the more recent cross-institutional studies conducted more recently in Turkey (Aksu et al 2010), the UK (See, 2004;Reid & Caudwell, 1997;Thornton et al, 2002), the Republic of Ireland (Clarke, 2009;Heinz, 2013aHeinz, , 2013bHeinz, , 2013cDrudy et al, 2005), Northern Ireland (Moran et al, 2001), Australia (Richardson & Watt, 2006;Watt & Richardson, 2008b) and China (Su et al, 2001) offer a more complete picture of the profiles and motivations of the student populations entering teacher education in these countries.…”

“…In their large-scale Chinese study incorporating the views of student teachers from 23 teacher training institutions, Su, Hawkins, Huang & Zhao (2001) found that Chinese teacher candidates rated intrinsic factors much lower and extrinsic factors much higher than their counterparts in the US. Despite the fact that students in both countries rated intrinsic factors overall higher than extrinsic factors, the discrepancy in the strength of agreement with different intrinsic and extrinsic values of the profession indicated, according to the researchers, a significant difference in entry perspectives between Chinese and American teacher candidates with many Chinese students showing much less enthusiasm for teaching than their American counterparts.…”

“…Family members have been found to have had an important influence on student teachers' career choice in Ireland (Drudy, et al, 2005), the UK (Tudhope, 1944;Valentine, 1934), the US (Book & Freeman, 1986;Fox, 1961;King, 1993), China (Su et al, 2001) and Brunei…”

Comparing motivations of pre-service and beginning teachers in China: impact of culture and experience

“…Most studies employing the FIT-Choice scale in Australia, North America, and Europe reported intrinsic and altruistic motivations and intentions were important factors in pre-service teachers' desire to teach (Heinz 2013). In contrast, several studies on teachers' profession entry motivation in such non-Western socio-cultural contexts as China (Su et al 2001;Lin et al 2012) and Turkey (Kilinç, Watt, and Richardson 2012) reported extrinsic values were more important to those choosing a teaching career. Similar studies of career decision-making based on social learning theory (Chapman 1984) have highlighted the interaction of social and cultural factors with teachers' beliefs about their roles; other studies in different cultural contexts have also, using the FIT-Choice scale, highlighted the importance of examining social-cultural factors (Heinz 2015).…”