Preferred Reasons in Selecting Teaching Profession as a Life Career: A Case Study of Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

Commitment and efficiency of teachers have an important input in the successful accomplishment of educational objectives of any nation; thus, highly motivated teachers are vital for an effective educational approach. By using a quantitative method, this study examined why teachers select the teaching as a profession for their life career. Through the purposive sampling, pre-service teachers from the University of Loralai were chosen in which 147 students participated in this research. Researchers collected the data through questionnaires and analyzed it by using descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The findings point out that majority of pre-service teachers choose the teaching profession as their life career due to the altruistic-intrinsic reasons because it received the highest mean as compared to the other reasons (i.e., extrinsic and reasons influenced by others). The extrinsic reasons and reasons influenced by others followed by in order of preference respectively. Regarding the gender variable, male and female pre-service teachers showed significant differences in altruistic-intrinsic reasons. Contrary to this, age, teaching experience and professional qualifications showed no significant differences with the altruistic-intrinsic reasons. Based on the findings, this study suggests that education policy should set standards for teacher education programs to elevate the status of teachers for attracting bright students before and after completing the programs.