PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ MOTIVATIONS FOR CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

The study aimed to observe pre-service teachers’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career. The study involved the trainees of two postgraduate courses for secondary school future teachers of a university in southern Italy. The pre-service teacher’s motivations were gathered through the use of an open question. The answers were coded within the expectancy-value model using template analysis. Seven predefined themes, corresponding to the factors of the Motivation portion of Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale, were used. An analysis of the research data showed that the majority of the future teachers involved reported intrinsic value and social utility value as motivations for choosing teaching as a career. Only a few future teachers revealed extrinsic values as motivations, such as social influences, or personal utility value. Furthermore, some of them reported they possessed the skills that teachers should have. They also reported that prior teaching and learning experiences influenced their choice. Knowing motivations of future teachers is very important in order to promote activities to support motivational aspects which are correlated with positive future professional outcomes.