Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This Chapter Includes the ideas, finishes thesis, generalization or conclusions,

methodologies and others. Those that were included in this chapter helps in familiarizing

information that are relevant and similar to the present study.

Related Literature

Abstract

The success of educational change inevitably depends on the quality and performance

of teachers. Therefore, the importance of employing high quality teachers is crucial for

educational systems. Choosing talented and committed brains to teaching career depends on

making it an attractive profession. It is considered that there are some reasons why student

teachers choose teaching as a career. Many studies reveal that while some students choose

this profession with altruistic-intrinsic and extrinsic reasons, some others choose it under the

influence of others. This study aims to determine for what reasons student teachers choose

teaching profession as a career. The study was carried out quantitively and 1410 student

teachers participated in this research. Results revealed that students chose teaching mostly

with altruistic-intrinsic reasons. In this respect, while the female students chose it with

altruistic-intrinsic reasons, the students from poor and crowded families and the male

counterparts chose it with extrinsic reasons. Keywords: student teacher, choosing career,

education faculty
[Link]

Career choice is considered as one of the major areas of concern for young people

nearing the end of their schooling (Alberts, Mbalo, & Ackermann, 2003). Since it is a

challenge to make a choice of their career, it is important for both parents and their children.

As teaching plays vital role in preparing future generations of any society, it is essential to

employ qualified and dedicated teachers in the profession. Therefore, choosing teaching as a

career becomes more crucial. Many other factors within and outside the family have also

been linked with career choices in teaching profession as well as other professions. When

teacher recruitment is concerned, it is claimed that the profession fails to attract bright young

people (Murnane, Singer, Willett, Kemple, & Olsen, 1991; Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000). It

has some structural, social and psychological reasons (Ingersoll, 2001; Lai, Mok, Ko, & Li,

2000; Menter, Hutchings, & Ross, 2002; Coulthard & Kyriacou, 2002). According to one

view, student teachers choose this profession with altruistic-intrinsic reasons or extrinsic

reasons. In another view, they choose it under the influence of others such as their parents,

teachers or peers. This study aims to determine for what reasons student teachers choose

teaching profession as a career. In attempting to investigate student teachers’ reasons for

choosing teaching as a career, the research aims to increase awareness towards teacher

training system in Turkey. It is considered that the results and recommendations to be

provided through this research will lead teacher education program coordinators, national

education ministry authorities and policy makers to revise the system to move forward.

1.1 Altruistic-Intrinsic Reasons

Altruistic-intrinsic reasons deal with seeing teaching as a socially worthwhile and

important job. It also covers aspects of the job activity itself such as teaching children and an
interest in teaching the school subject. It is implied in many researches that one of the main

reasons for choosing to teach is based on intrinsic motives. In this respect, “intrinsic career

value” indicates that students have an instinctive passion about teaching and genuinely enjoy

it. Similarly, teaching is accepted to be worthwhile to find out the characteristics of those

who are interested or not interested in teaching if we are concerned with encouraging people

into teaching (Coulthard & Kyriacou 2002). According to Ozbek (2007) students teachers

choose their career with personal factors rather than economic and social factors. Moreover,

in some other studies it is claimed that student choose teaching as a career since it is an

autonomous profession while some others think that they can stay young in this profession.

What is more, while some candidates think that they can bring up their children in this

profession easier than any other work, some others have some ideological approaches like

influencing young generations (Kelly, 2012; Lawver & Torres, 2011). Hacıomeroglu and

Taskın (2010) found that while some candidates choose the career as they think that the

profession is respectable and they like teaching children, others think that the profession will

make them happy. Tataroglu, Ozgen, and Alkan (1998) assert that they have an interest and

love in teaching, see the profession as an appropriate, respectable and blessed work.

1.2 Extrinsic Reasons

It is revealed in some studies that student teachers are motivated to join profession

with mostly extrinsic reasons (Chan, 1998). Extrinsic reasons refer to economic as well as

conditions of service and social status. It is considered that students are interested in teaching

as a career, and generally regard teaching as a preferred and respected occupation (Lai, Ko,

& Li, 2000). Students who are interested in teaching consider teaching career for its

enormous contribution to society, good salaries and good working conditions. The security
of employment offered by teaching and the attractive working hours and longer holidays

(Butcher & Lewis, 2002; Knobloch, 2005; Stiegelbauer, 1992; Hayes, 2000).

1.3 Influence of Others

Making their career choice under the influence of others means choosing the

profession as a result of their peers, teachers, relatives and parents’ effect (Murnane, Singer,

Willett, Kemple, & Olsen, 1991; Bastick, 2000; Brown, 1992; Chuene, Lubben, & Newson,

1999; Saban, 2003; Cermik, Dogan, & Sahin 2010; Behymer & Cockriel 1988; Kniveton,

2004; Y. Boz & E. Boz, 2008; C. Papanastasiou & E. Papanastasiou, 1997, 1998;

Hacıomeroglu & Sahin, 2009; Ubuz & Sarı, 2008). Student motives are also influenced by

their own images and experiences of school life and the work of teachers (Hutchison &

Johnson, 1994; Butcher & Lewis, 2002; Reid & Caudwell, 1997; Chan, 1998; Heafford &

Jennison, 1998). Taking everything into consideration, it is evident that teacher candidates

choose their career with different reasons. For this reason, this study aims to discover for

what reasons student teachers choose teaching profession as a career. It also purposes to find

out if variables like gender, department, grade, family social background, place they live, age

produce significant difference.

Source: [Link] Teaching Profession as a

Career: Students’ Reasons

There are different factors that affect students’ choice of education course in college.

One of this is family related factors. Studies revealed that Filipino immigrants and non-

immigrants rely heavily on their family’s decision making. Students cope by following their

parents’ advice. They also have to cope with expectation of financially supporting the family

upon completing their education. Studies from other Asian countries also show parents’

impact in decision making of students when it comes to students’ course preference.

Furthermore, it is reported that parents are deeply involved and influential to their high-

achieving children’s college choices. The report also found open houses, dialogue with

college friends, alumni, and admitted-student programs are extremely influential to students.

The report claimed these source are not well known but very powerful to student’s decision

making for their college. The study also found 26% of sampled students paid a specialist or

advisor during the college decision process. The studies presented are important to the

present study since the studies explain the importance of taking parents’ advice and

permissiobn in choosing a college course.

Source: [Link]

Review of Related Literature

Abstract

As teaching is a nation-building profession, the career motivations of pre-service

teachers are worth exploring. This study examines the career motivations of 283 Turkish

pre-service teachers who have chosen teaching as a career. Accordingly, they were asked
questions about deciding to teach, career perceptions, and major expectations. A profile of

the participants was then developed by analyzing their responses in quantitative and

qualitative ways as being descriptive, statistical, and inductive steps. It is seen that

extrinsic, altruistic, and intrinsic motivations all play a role when individuals choose

teaching as a career. In addition, although altruistic motives are very dominant for females,

mercenary-based extrinsic motives are dominant for males. Associatively, teaching is

further desired as a first profession by females. In light of the findings, we give suggestions

for teacher training

Introduction

What are the reasons motivating young people to choose teaching as a career? Over

the last three decades, the reasons for choosing teaching as a career have been a research

topic, and it is likely to be an ongoing issue for scholars as long as efforts continue to be

made for the recruiting and retaining of teachers.

Within the teacher education literature, numerous positive and negative factors have been

noted as influencing young people’s decision to pursue a career in teaching. However, as

the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005), of which Turkey is

a member, noted, teachers’ daily work “has become more complex and demanding in

addressing increasingly diverse student populations, higher social expectations of schools,

expanding fields of knowledge, and new types of responsibilities” (OECD 2005, cited in

Watt et al. 2012, p. 1). There is also global recognition that the success of any educational

reform strongly depends on the quality and performance of the teachers (Ingersoll and

Smith 2004; Kennedy 2008; Tatto 2007). However, due to the demanding workload

mentioned above, teachers’ performance is likely to be adversely affected. Teaching is a

profession that requires a high degree of responsibility and altruism. Consequently, it seems
such difficult task motivating young people for teaching profession. Moreover, given that

“teaching appears to be an occupation considered central to a country’s development and

well-being” (Watt et al. 2012, p. 1), there is an understandable concern for the next

generation with respect to the mission of nation-building (Manuel and Hughes  2006; Moran

et al. 2001; Skilbeck and Connell 2003; Taylor 2006).

There are two underlying factors to be investigated concerning teaching as a career (König

and Rothland 2012). First, motivation is described as a mandatory attribute of professional

teachers. The modeling and empirical analysis of teacher competence therefore involves

motivational components, including career choice motivation (Blömeke et al. 2012; Kunter

et al. 2008). Secondly, in recent years, worldwide teacher shortages have given rise to

studies of the motivation for choosing teaching as a career, which are particularly important

when explaining why teacher education graduates do not enter the profession or drop out

after a short period of time (Rots et al. 2010; Thomson et al. 2012; Watt and

Richardson 2008). Australia, the U.S., Germany, Norway, the U.K., and several European

countries, among others, have reported difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers (Johnson

and Birkeland 2003; Krecic and Grmek 2005; Kyriacou et al. 1999; Liu et al. 2000; Moran

et al. 2001; Newson 1993; Ramsay 2000; Richardson and Watt 2010; Sinclair 2008; Spear

et al. 2000). These difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers are linked to teacher

workload, salary, disruptive pupils, and the low status of the profession (Kyriacou et

al. 2003, p. 256).

Concerning the issue in Turkey, due to the decline in the income of public employees from

the 1980s until today, the teaching profession has lost prestige when compared to the first

years of the republican era, and thus, the social status of the profession has gradually

diminished (Erden 1998). The decline of teachers’ incomes, their rising cost of living, an
abundant increase in the number of teachers, and the appointment of unqualified teachers

have all reduced the quality of teaching and the prestige of teachers in the eyes of the public

(Erden, Eskicumalı 2002). Today, the teaching profession is being cited among the less

desirable professions in Turkey. In such a context, it is considered as a profession that

anyone can do by quoting a statement that is widely stated in Turkish society: “If you are

unfit for anything else, be a teacher!” (Özsoy et al. 2010, p. 912). However, a completely

different kind of statement was made centuries ago by Hz. Ali, a scholar from the Islamic

world, who said “I will be the slave to the one who has taught me even a letter.” Hz. Ali’s

comment reminds us that teaching is a divine profession that cannot be disregarded.

Historically, the statement of Hz. Ali had a motivating value with regard to the teaching

profession (Sönmez 2009). Furthermore, the statement of Atatürk on August 25, 1924 at the

congress of teachers in Ankara underlies the importance of the teaching profession:

“Teachers! The new republican generation will be your heritage.” The divineness of the

teaching profession can also be clarified by the statement of the glorious philosopher

Socrates: “Everything in the world can be assessed but the heritage of a teacher.” That is to

say, the teaching profession deserves to be defined as the highest profession of all (Işık et

al. 2010).

As seen above, choosing teaching as a career has been extensively investigated as a

research topic throughout the world including Turkey but not so much with respect to some

teaching professions such as mathematics, English, biology, chemistry, pre-school, etc.

(Aksu et al. 2010; Bulut 2009; Çapri and Çelikkaleli 2008; Çermik et al. 2010; Derman et

al. 2008; Gürbüz and Sülün 2004; Işık et al. 2010; Kabadayı 2008; Kılınç and

Mahiroğlu 2009; Özsoy et al. 2010; Saban 2003; Tataroğlu et al. 2011; Temizkan 2008;

Yazıcı 2009; Zehir-Topkaya and Uztosun 2012). These types of research in varied teaching

branches show us the significance of the issue.

Review of Related Literature

Abstract

Why do individuals all over the world choose to become school teachers? What

motivates them to become educators of young people and how committed are they to this

cause when they enter their teacher education courses? Considering that teacher motivation

and commitment have been identified as crucial factors for the future success of education

and schools (Huberman, 1993; Manning & Patterson, 2005; Rikard, 1999), these are

important questions for policy makers and societies to address. This paper provides a

systematic and conceptual review of empirical research studies exploring student teachers’

career motivations and commitment in twenty-three countries from five continents. A variety

of motivating factors are explored, their relative importance in student teachers’ career

decisions is discussed, and differences between various subgroups and cultural contexts are

highlighted. Attention is drawn to methodological limitations as well as recent developments

in this important area of research. Keywords: international review, career motivations,

commitment to teaching, (student) teacher career choice literature, cross-cultural studies,

methodological challenges.

Introduction

What the teacher is, is more important than what s/he teaches (Karl Menninger).

Teacher policy is high on national agendas because Teachers Matter (Day, Sammons,

Stobart, Kington & Gu, 2007; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD), 2005). They matter not just because they influence the academic achievement of
their pupils (Hattie, 2003), which may be regarded to have an important long-term effect on a

Heinz, M. (2015). Why choose teaching? An international review of empirical studies

exploring student teachers’ career motivations and levels of commitment to teaching.

Educational Research and Evaluation, 21(3), 258-297. 2 society’s economic competitiveness

in a globalised market. They also matter because they have a very significant impact upon

their pupils’ social and emotional growth and their preparedness to live, work and contribute

to their local communities and wider society. From the perspective of a social justice agenda,

teachers are furthermore expected to be social activists who are committed to diminishing

educational disadvantage as well as broader inequities of society (Gay, 1990; Sleeter, 1996;

Villegas & Lucas, 2001). While academic proficiency, subject matter knowledge and

‘technical’ teaching skills are important factors contributing to teacher effectiveness, quality

education cannot be achieved without teachers who are motivated, enthusiastic and truly

committed to their students’ education and to the teaching profession (Collinson, Killeavy &

Stephenson, 1999, Manning & Patterson, 2005, Rikard, 1999). When Hattie identifies the

teacher as the greatest source of variance that can make a difference on students’ learning he

emphasises that it is “what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in this

learning equation (2003, 2). A number of recent teacher effectiveness studies have identified

personal qualities of teachers, particularly as regards the quality of their relationships with

their students, as a key variable distinguishing more effective teachers from their less

effective counterparts (Stronge, Ward, Tucker & Hindman, 2008; Stronge, Ward & Grant,

2011). The motivations and attitudes that pre-service teachers bring with them upon entering

their teacher education programmes have now been widely recognized as substantially

influential in the subsequent development of students and, eventually, when they become

teachers (Aksu, Demir, Daloglu, Yildirim & Kiraz, 2010; Goodson, 2003; Minor,

Onwuegbuzie, Witcher & James , 2002; Wideen, Mayer-Smith & Moon,, 1998; Richardson
& Watt, 2006). The old view of the teacher as an instrument in the production of school

achievement – a person that needs to be trained and equipped with the “knowledge base” of

the profession – has been replaced with a much more holistic view of the teacher as an 3

intelligent agent in educating children whose practice ‘remains forever rooted in personality

and experience’ (Kagan, 1992, p.163; Goodson, 1994). More recent research exploring

teachers’ professional identities continues to highlight the impact of biographical factors such

as teachers’ own schooling experiences, their motivations for entering teacher education

programmes, their initial teacher education experiences and contexts of professional practice

among the main influences upon the “construction, deconstruction and reconstruction” of

teachers’ professional identities, “and thus the kinds of teachers they become and their

effectiveness” (Flores & Day, 2006). Work motivation theorists have suggested that salient

motivations trigger, sustain and concentrate behaviour (Locke & Latham, 2004; Steers,

Mowday & Shapiro, 2004). They are, thus, closely linked to and impacting on individuals’

work commitment (retention, concentration). More specifically, work motivations have been

defined as a set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an

individual’s being, to initiate workrelated behaviour and to determine its form, direction,

intensity, and duration” (Pinder, 1998, p.11). Paying attention to the sociological and cultural

factors impacting on individual’s career choice, Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997) highlight the

influence of social networks and cultural traditions, educational and labour market situations

as well as opportunity structures – all of which form an individual’s horizon for action -

limiting individual’s career decisions. Applied to teaching and teacher education, student

teacher motivations offer an insight into the factors that attract individuals to teaching which,

in turn, may influence how long they may remain in their initial preparatory courses and the

profession, and the nature and extent of their engagement with (or concentration on) their

course and their teaching roles and responsibilities. Findings from studies exploring student
teachers’ career choice motivations can, therefore, inform teacher recruitment and retention

policies as well as the planning of effective teacher education programmes and wider

education policy. Comparison 4 between motivating factors (and their relative strength)

observed in different countries can, furthermore, contribute to a better understanding of the

impact of cultural, economic and possible other factors on student teachers’ career

motivations. Teacher shortage has been identified by UNESCO as a global problem affecting

countries all over the world. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2013), 1.6

million teaching posts will need to be created to achieve universal primary education by 2015

and this number will rise further to 3.3 million by 2030. At lower secondary level, the

corresponding numbers are 3.5 million in 2015 and 5.1 million by 2030. Attracting, recruiting

and retaining sufficient numbers of motivated and committed student teachers is, in this

context, a clear global policy issue. This paper reviews empirical research studies exploring

student teachers’ career motivations and commitment in twenty-three countries from five

continents. It provides an overview and discussion of the findings from this body of research

and the methodologies used in the different studies and contexts. While a detailed description

of the education contexts, cultural features and labour market conditions for all twenty-three

countries included in this review is beyond the scope of this study, it is hoped that the salient

crosscultural similarities and differences it describes together with the critical discussion

offered in relation to the challenges and complexities inherent in cross-cultural motivation

research will make a worthwhile contribution to this important field of research. Some of the

differences that will be shown will focus our attention on global, other on more localised,

countryspecific contextual impact factors that education experts and policy makers should

consider in the context of teacher recruitment, selection, motivations, preparation, induction

and retention.
Source:

[Link]

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