Teacher trainees' motives for entering into a teaching career in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

Abstract The teacher trainees' responses to open-ended questions were used to determine their motives for choosing a career in teaching. The evidence suggests that extrinsic motives were the main determinants for trainees to choose teaching. The reasons “no other choice” (ranked first) and “influence of others” (ranked second) were the most important. Under intrinsic motives the important reasons were “ambition to become a teacher” (ranked third) and “opportunities for academic development” (ranked fourth). Under altruistic motives “like working with children” (ranked fifth) was found to be the most important reason. The findings indicate that a large proportion of the trainees gave reasons for choosing teaching which were extrinsic in nature. Such motive may have important implications on their long-term commitment to teaching and this is highlighted in the final section of the paper.