THE DECISION TO TEACH IN AN ERA OF DECLINING ENROLLMENTS IN TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAMS

Abstract

In America, declining enrollments in teacher education programs pose a problem for the future of education. Some studies (Barry & Shields, 2017; Westervelt, 2015) suggest high-stakes testing and top-down education reforms are making the profession less attractive. Studies examining teacher shortages (Oklahoma teacher shortage task force, 2018) typically focus on teacher pay or working conditions but do not attempt direct correlations to declining teacher preparation enrollments. The literature repeatedly suggests that teachers entering the profession do so for altruistic reasons. In this grounded theory study, interviews were conducted to examine relationships between teachers and students, and to address questions of altruism and external factors that may have motivated pre-service teachers to enter the profession. Discussions with pre-service teachers from three different content disciplines provide insights into the importance of their past experiences with K-12 teachers in seeking to become teachers. This study presents an updated view of influences guiding students into teaching, including altruism. A new theory, intrepid altruism, attempts to capture the highly-nuanced reasons that future teachers in this study chose to enter the profession.