Chapter 4: “Teaching ... It Just Feels Right”: Contemporary Perspectives of Career-Change Teachers and Their Motivations for Teaching

A significant issue confronting Australian education is attracting and retaining quality teachers (Buchanan et al., 2013), as it is in many industrialized countries (Hayes, 2004). Aging teacher populations and high attrition rates of newly qualified teachers (OECD, 2005) have been of growing concern for some time (Gallant & Riley, 2014). The rate of early career teacher attrition in Australia remains high, and the loss of workforce capacity is concerning, particularly as some evidence suggests that influential factors relating to intentions to leave the profession emerge after teachers enter the profession (McKenzie, Kos, Walker, & Hong, 2008).

Understanding initial motivations to teach (Day & Gu, 2014; Laming & Horne, 2013) and how these are influenced by the realities of early classroom teaching (Abbott-Chapman, 2005; Aspfors & Bondas, 2013; Clandinin et al., 2015) emphasize opportunities to enhance initial teacher education (ITE; Hong, 2010) and strengthen strategies for retaining quality beginning teachers (Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). The motivations of preservice teachers to enter ITE and how these influence the emerging professional identities of preservice teachers (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009) provide insights into appropriate strategies to recruit and retain prospective teachers and to develop policies and practices that support and sustain graduate career-change teachers within the profession (Correa, Martinez-Arbelaiz, & Aberasturi-Apraiz, 2015).