What motivates teachers to enter the profession?

Using machine learning to process thousands of responses to open-ended essays, we identified 10 big reasons why future teachers want to become teachers.

The two most common motivations were altruism (the desire to do good in a selfless way) and intrinsic motivation (the enjoyment of teaching, helping, or interacting with students or children). Other interesting but less frequently cited motivations include the influence of former teachers, love of a field of study, and a family connection to teaching.

Interestingly, motivations differed across prospective teachers’ characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, gender, family income, and certification.

For example, those seeking an elementary education degree were more likely to enjoy working with children, while prospective middle and high school teachers were interested in teaching a specific subject area. Similarly, men were less likely than women to report having “always wanted to teach.” This suggests that contextual characteristics may influence motivations to become a teacher.

Moreover, and more importantly, we found that certain teacher motivations were linked to better outcomes. While altruism was the most frequently given response, it was not the one that was most strongly correlated with effectiveness.

Specifically, prospective teachers who shared that they were intrinsically motivated to teach And had experienced some adversity in schools Teachers who exhibited both of these motivators were both more effective and less likely to leave the classroom prematurely. Individuals who exhibited both of these motivators had a significant and positive correlation with their clinical teaching observation scores and were less likely to leave the K-12 public school system within the first few years of entering the system.

Although these effects are modest, it is worth noting that written self-reports of teacher motivation had some influence on these results. Motives are no longer just interesting; they can have consequences.

From motivations to marketing

By better understanding teachers’ motivations, we can learn more about who might be successful in the profession. Specifically, we want to find individuals who are intrinsically motivated to teach or who have overcome adversity in educational settings.

These future teachers might be like the following study participant who expressed how adversity and the impact of previous teachers motivated them to become teachers:

“The statistics are very negative for someone with a background similar to what I knew. I live in a poor neighborhood and I struggle to learn English as a second language. I am the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents who did not even finish elementary school… I was lucky to have many teachers who became my role models… I want to pass on what my teachers did for me.”

How can we integrate these kinds of people into classrooms?

First, states should consider long-term solutions to address teacher shortages, including finding and incentivizing motivated individuals to pursue teacher education programs. Policymakers could invest in early learning opportunities, such as mentoring programs or summer programs explicitly designed to encourage individuals to consider careers in education and teaching (consider the Breakthrough Collaborative, for example).

Second, teacher education programs need to prioritize strategic marketing, especially in places where intrinsic motivation for teaching occurs more naturally (think high schools, college campuses, and daycares).

Third, school districts could consider teacher motivations as part of their hiring process. All else being equal, it may be helpful to better understand candidates’ interest in teaching, because our research indicates that some motivations lead to more effective and longer-tenured teachers than others.

With these recommendations, classrooms across the country can begin using teacher motivations to improve student learning.