Motivations to go into teaching: A longitudinal perspective of trainees’ career satisfaction and commitment to teaching

Abstract

There is currently a global shortage of qualified teachers. Education systems in many countries are struggling to attract and retain high quality candidates for teaching despite multitudes of initiatives and huge financial investments. This thesis identifies and proposes key determinants of individuals’ decisions or motivations for choosing teaching as a career or not and their long-term commitment to teaching. Understanding this will help to identify appropriate strategies to attract and retain teachers. The thesis begins with a systematic review of international evidence focused on motivations of students, in-service and pre-service teachers, across the world to understand individual as well as cultural and political factors influencing their career decisions. These studies are invariably cross-sectional presenting individuals’ decisions at one time point. My thesis extends this with a longitudinal national study of one-year postgraduate trainee teacher trainees’ motivations, perceptions, career satisfaction and their commitment to teaching. Two surveys were carried out – one at the beginning of the training (n=645) and a follow-up survey at the end of the training (n=761). The survey also looked at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on trainees’ career decisions.

The systematic review identified 517 studies of which 212 were included in the synthesis. These studies highlighted three main motivating factors - intrinsic, altruistic and extrinsic. There are subtle differences between groups. Across all cultures and phase of education, more women choose teaching than men, and women are somewhat more likely to report being motivated by intrinsic and altruistic reasons, while men are more likely to influenced by extrinsic factors. Across all cultures, men are reportedly more strongly influenced by social norms and expectations and are less likely to choose primary and early years teaching.

The review highlights major limitations in research on this topic. The lack of comparison group is one of them. Only a handful of studies compared the career motivations and perceptions of those who have considered teaching and those who have not. The reasons given by current and prospective teachers for entering teaching are not necessarily the same as those that draw others into teaching. Therefore, policies based on these flawed studies might only be attracting those who are already persuaded.

Almost all the studies in the review are correlational, and few controlled for demographic factors. These studies cannot establish the direction of causation. We cannot be sure if teachers’ reported motivations for going into teaching are post hoc justifications for their decisions. Few would admit to entering teaching as a last resort. Most studies also did not include biographical factors. Those studies that did suggest that these are the strongest predictors of who are likely to go into teaching or not. Those who chose teaching are more likely to study generic subjects at university, have lower entry qualifications and have parents with lower parental occupational and educational levels. Most students would have made up their mind about their career decisions by the time they made their subject choice at university. Therefore, to increase the number of teachers in some shortage subjects, like maths and science, might require an approach that targets students before they make their subject choice at university. The review also found that extrinsic factors were particularly important to men and those in STEM subjects. Policies to attract these under-represented groups might do well to emphasise the extrinsic value of teaching, such as, pay, job status and job satisfaction.

None of the studies in the review compared the motivations of people on different routes into training or between career changers and first career teachers. My primary research found that men and those on a university-led route are more attracted by the possibility of teaching abroad, while those on school-led route are more likely to cite job security as a reason for entering teaching.

The experience of teaching during the pandemic had also made some reassess their long-term plans. Trainees reported having limited classroom experience and were finding it difficult to get a teaching post. Despite this, the majority of trainees remained positive and aspired to be effective teachers and further develop themselves professionally. Interestingly, few of these trainees had considered leadership roles.

In general, trainee teachers appear to be very satisfied with teaching as a career choice, with most planning to stay in the profession in the long-term. Of the few who indicated that they wanted to leave, heavy workload associated with teaching was the key factor. There were also a few who said they might want to consider other career options in the long run. Initiatives to retain newly qualified teachers would need to consider how new teachers could be supported. The Early Career Framework and the Workload Strategy, clearly had minimal effect. A re-evaluation of these policies is urgently needed.