Abstract:
Teacher shortages are being experienced in Australia and in many OECD countries and predicted to increase in the future. Understanding beginning teachers' motivations and perceptions is important in understanding any differing teacher career trajectories; for instance, those who qualified and currently teach, those who qualified but never taught or quit teaching, and those who never qualified. This study will utilise longitudinal Australian 'FIT-Choice' data (www.fitchoice.org) to identify the motivations and perceptions that distinguish between these three groups. At entry to teacher education (N = 1651), the FIT-Choice scale (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice; Watt & Richardson, 2007) was used to measure 12 teaching motivations and 5 perceptions by multiple items rated on 7-point Likert-type scales (Richardson & Watt, 2006). 2-5 years after the scheduled degree completion, surveys assessed different career trajectories (N = 776). 2 MANOVAs compared motivations and perceptions for three trajectory groups (those who qualified and currently teach N = 452; those who qualified but never taught or quit teaching N = 60; those who did not qualify N = 264). A discriminant analysis revealed that student outcomes can be predicted based on entry motivations and perceptions.