Norwegian university students' views on a career in teaching

Abstract

Abstract This study explored the views of 84 first year students at a University College in Norway about a career in teaching. The students completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate the influence of 20 factors on their choice of career, and then the extent to which they thought teaching as a career accommodated these factors. A comparison was made between the views expressed by three groups of students: those who were not considering teaching (n= 38), those who were vaguely considering teaching (n= 34) and those who were seriously considering teaching (n= 12). As we move from the ‘definitely not considering teaching’ group towards the ‘seriously considering teaching’ group, there was an increasingly greater match between factors rated as important when choosing a career and factors which were rated as being offered by teaching as a career (e.g. ‘a job where I can use my university subject’, ‘a career that provides intellectual challenge’, ‘a job where I will contribute to society’, ‘a job that can easily be combined with parenthood’, ‘a job where I can care for others’ and ‘working with children’). These findings support a model of career choice based on a match between students' perceptions of the important job factors and whether these factors are offered. The students who reported that they could be encouraged to consider teaching as a career were also asked to rate measures that might do this. The most highly rated measure was ‘more resources, better teaching materials and better teaching conditions’.