Destined to Teach: A case study of a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education cohort over 16 years

The views of five participating undergraduate students of the Student Associates Scheme in England

“…This is consistent with existing studies and demonstrates that these students place greater value on both altruistic and intrinsic reasons for considering teaching as a career (Brown, 1992;Kyriacou and Coulthard, 2000;Heafford and Jennison, 1998).…”

“…The five students identify the activity of teaching school students as having high levels of intrinsic value through classroom interaction and forming effective relationships with both school students and teaching colleagues. Job satisfaction is cited as being an important aspect of teaching echoing the findings of Heafford and Jennison (1998) and Spear, et al (2000). This becomes an important recruitment tool when assessing students' career aspirations.…”

“…During the discussion regarding teaching the undergraduates mentioned the interactions between themselves and school students suggesting that had they not been engaged in This particularly resonates with the work of Heafford and Jennison (1998) who highlighted the desire to work with and form positive relationships with young people as a cornerstone of existing teachers' decision to teach.…”

“…This work has focused on practising teachers reflecting on their decision to become teachers, the appeal of teaching to undergraduates or the motivation of trainee teachers (Lortie, 1975;Young, 1995;Heafford and Jennison, 1998). Lortie's (1975) classic study of American schoolteachers found that the appeal of teaching was its interpersonal nature, the sense of service that it carried and the fact that it allowed teachers to continue their involvement with a subject they themselves studied and enjoyed.…”

Teaching as a career: a perspective from Hong Kong senior secondary students

“…Reid & Caudwell, 1997;Chan, 1998;Heafford & Jennison, 1998). Nevertheless, as Hutchinson and Johnson (1993/ 1994 argued, for the purpose of understanding the recruitment phases of teacher socialization, it would be more valuable to collect data from prospective teachers, i.e.…”