The purpose of this project was to investigate how the goal of becoming a teacher emerges. The study used interviews to develop goal histories for 8 preservice teachers. There tended to be 4 sources of influence for their goal to become a teacher: (a) family influences, (b) teacher influences, (c) peer influences, and (d) teaching experiences. The categories developed from the interviews to describe the types of influences those sources provided were (a) suggesting that the person become a teacher, (b) encouraging the person to become a teacher, (c) modeling teaching behavior, (d) exposing the person to teaching experiences, and (e) discouraging the person from becoming a teacher. In addition, influences such as critical incidents, emotions, and social-historical factors, such as the status and pay of teachers, were prominent in the goal histories of the participants. Finally, the results of the study are discussed within the context of goals and self-directed behavior.
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