International Portal of Teacher Education
The online resource of academic content on teacher training and teacher education
Search results for: Career change
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13 items
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This article examines the career trajectories of recent college graduates and career changers who became mathematics teachers in hard-to-staff schools through New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF).
The goal is to understand the main patterns in their careers before, during, and after teaching.
The study provides a portrait of the career trajectories and decision-making of more than 600 NYCTF mathematics teachers over a nine-year period.
The study incorporates survey and retention data collected as part of a longitudinal research project on NYCTF mathematics teachers.
The analysis of the teachers’ career trajectories is illuminated by descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses of teachers’ open-ended survey responses.
The article deepens our understanding of teachers’ career decision-making as it unfolds over time.
For example, it documents that the leavers emphasized different reasons for leaving NYC public schools, depending on when they left.
The study also challenges conventional understandings of teacher turnover by finding consequential amounts of midyear and involuntary turnover and by demonstrating the stochastic nature of some teachers’ trajectories.
It further shows that, although in many ways similar, the career trajectories of the career changers and recent college graduates differed in key regards; for example, although the career changers seem to have had greater trouble adjusting to teaching, they were more likely to remain in the district a decade after entry than the recent graduates.
The discussion focuses on the implications of the study for recruitment and retention strategies that can ameliorate pressing teacher turnover and shortage issues.
It posits that, given the high rates of turnover among NYCTF mathematics teachers, recruitment strategies focused on recruiting high-achieving recent graduates and professional career changers will not solve long-standing teacher turnover issues in districts such as NYC public schools.
As such, districts need to focus on retention strategies.
These would include, for example, training and induction tailored to meet the different needs and career goals of career changers and recent graduates.
Published: 2021
Updated: Jan. 29, 2022
2
In this study, the authors present and evaluate a way to profile second career teachers (SCTs) in technical and vocational education and training schools (TVET schools) that goes beyond the traditional motivational approach.
More specifically, by considering multiple entry-related variables (entry motivation, career adaptability, and prior job satisfaction).
Analyses based on a mixed methods design (262 prospective and in-service second career teachers for the latent profile analysis and 7 in-service teachers for the multiple case study) revealed three profiles with their own specific characteristics and predicting different levels of sense of efficacy for teaching.
This study confirms the heterogeneity of the population of second career teachers and invites reflection on the implications for their entry into teaching.
Published: 2021
Updated: Sep. 09, 2021
3
The main purpose of the present study was to illuminate the factors that enhance or inhibit job satisfaction among second-career teachers (SCTs) in their initial period at school.
Data was gathered from questionnaires filled out by 80 novice SCTs and a comparable group of 82 First-Career Teachers (FCTs).
Personal interviews were conducted with eight SCTs.
The findings show that the most powerful predictor of high job satisfaction among SCTs is the availability of support whereas the most powerful predictor among FCTs is workload.
The qualitative analysis suggests that experience acquired by SCTs before they start teaching provides a repertoire of helpful strategies, thus improving their ability to cope with stressful experiences.
The findings support the trend to advocate teaching as a second career for experienced professionals.
Published: 2020
Updated: May. 13, 2021
4
Career changers form a substantial proportion of teacher education (TE) students.
They bring a broader set of life and work experiences than do their younger, school-leaving counterparts.
This paper investigates the needs and concerns of career change student teachers (CCSTs) in Australia.
The study on which this article reports analysed survey data from 508 CCSTs enrolled in 29 of Australia’s 34 universities.
The article explores what this group brings to their TE courses, and how their needs and contributions may differ from those of younger students.
The data confirmed career changers’ reasons for choosing teaching are primarily driven by intrinsic and altruistic motivations.
Concerns regarding flexibility in course offerings was expressed.
The authors advise that attracting and retaining career change teachers is likely to become increasingly important in the context of rising school student numbers, teacher attrition, and the impending departure from the profession of many ‘baby boomers’.
Published: 2020
Updated: May. 11, 2021
5
The aim of the study was to explore the motives underpinning career mobility, and the impact of such mobility on changing the perceptions of senior teacher educators from Israel who have experienced cross-cultural professional transitions during the mid-career stage.
A thematic analysis of five interviewees’ retrospective narratives highlighted three motives driving career mobility:
the opportunity for professional development; the joy of adventure and challenge; and the need to bring about a fundamental change in their careers.
In addition, two categories of changes in perceptions that occurred following international mobility were mapped:
(a) pluralistic perceptions in a multicultural higher education environment, and
(b) culture of learning among the younger generation.
The discussion raises similarities and differences between the findings and the literature on career mobility in higher education.
Published: 2019
Updated: Jan. 13, 2020
6
Troops to Teachers (TtT) is a UK governmental scheme introduced in 2013 to facilitate ex-military service personnel to re-train as teachers.
This narrative study explores the accounts of a sample of new TtT trainees at the onset of their training and considers their motivations for career changing, potential transferable attributes and skills, aspirational teacher identities and anticipated challenges.
Emerging from these rich narratives is a strong, shared commitment to the trainees’ chosen new career.
Self-discipline is identified as a professional quality to take into teaching from military service, whilst maintaining discipline in the classroom is more commonly regarded as an area of concern and challenge, rather than as a transferable skill set, challenging core governmental expectations of the Troops to Teachers initiative.
However, the importance of and a desire and commitment to continue to ‘serve’, is widely held, reflecting a particular narrative refraction of the TtT trainees.
This provides potential for further, perhaps longitudinal study, as the troops become teachers.
The study affirms the potential for further investment in a wider recruitment strategy for career-change teachers more generally, as providing an experienced and motivated professional workforce for schools.
Published: 2019
Updated: Jan. 05, 2020
7
This article aimed to examine the factors that influenced the decision for three researchers to make the move from primary teaching to higher education. The authors identified three common, key themes leading to the participants’ career change: exploration and reinvention, key figures and lifelong learners. The results suggest that the participants felt a sufficient degree of competence to pursue a career as a teacher educator within higher education and so made the decision to apply for a position.
Published: 2016
Updated: May. 22, 2018
8
This study aimed to explore the professional challenges and concerns of 30 second career teachers (SCTs) participating in an alternative fast-track induction program during their first year of teaching. Additionally, the study investigated their perspectives of the institutional support provided to them. The results suggest that the challenges and concerns of SCTs trained through a fast-track program are essentially not dissimilar from novice teachers trained in traditional programs. Even though SCTs entered the profession with extensive life and work experience, they seemed to perceive the same mismatch experienced by other first-year teachers between what they had expected and what they actually encountered. Their main challenges and concerns centered on: classroom teaching, teacher–student relations, the extensive workload, and their emotional involvement.
Published: 2016
Updated: Jan. 02, 2017
9
This article focuses in 12 career-change teachers from an industry background during their first 3 years as technology and Vocational Education and Training in Schools (VETiS) teachers in New South Wales, Australia. Through interviews, site visits, emails, and phone calls, a descriptive analysis was undertaken to investigate how these early career teachers had adapted to their new roles. The study investigated the ways in which these teachers ascribed meaning to their professional lives.
Published: 2015
Updated: Jun. 14, 2015
10
In this study, the authors identify the complexity of the transitioning identities of four STEM career changers to better inform teacher education programs on how to be more mindful of the needs of this population as they return to the life of a student again on their path toward a new career in teaching.
Published: 2012
Updated: Jan. 28, 2013