Teaching is not for life - Student teachers' reflections on careership and their possible future selves

The focus of this study is on understanding career choices and possible selves of five student teachers who chose to participate in an honours programme.

A shortage of qualified teachers in general and science teachers in particular is a well recognised problem across Europe. Part of this teacher shortage derives from student teachers who choose not to enter the teaching profession upon graduation. In order to understand and in turn alleviate teacher shortage in general, it is important to understand how experiences during teacher education affect student teachers’ career reflections. In this study I have explored how five student teachers’ reflections on their future career interacted with the opportunity to sign up for an honours programme. The study is longitudinal and qualitative and inspired by Constructivist Grounded Theory.

Common for the student teachers’ reflections is that they see teaching as a profession with limited opportunities for personal and professional development and reflect on the choice to sign up for the honours programme as a means to expand their opportunities upon graduation. These insights are important contributions to understand teacher shortage.