Describing the Elephant: Preservice Teachers Talk about Spiritual Reasons for Becoming a Teacher.

Abstract

Given the need for high quality teachers in every classroom, it is important to understand what might contribute to the preparation and persistence of teachers. Two lines of literature in teacher education relate to such an understanding. One line of literature follows the circumstances of how people decide to become teachers. The other line explores the relationship between spirituality and teaching. This paper considers the intersection of those two lines; namely, what is the relationship, if any between why people enter the K-12 teaching field and the spirituality of teaching?