Is teaching your final destination?

I wonder what I would have said back in grad school in 1999 if someone had asked me the question “how long do you intend to stay in teaching?” I think that I probably knew then that teaching was going to be part of my working life, but not necessarily my final destination.  I stayed in the classroom for four years.

A few interesting studies have been published recently that look at teacher retention rates, and teachers’ explanations of why they stay or leave the classroom (look here, for instance).  But I’m intrigued by a slightly different element of this issue, featured in a recent New York Times Magazine piece on Teach For American, which takes up the common assertion that TFA teachers “view their teaching stint as a résumé-burnishing pit stop before moving on to bigger things — that T.F.A. stands for ‘Teach for Awhile.’” It makes me wonder if different types of teacher preparation yield teachers with different career goals at the outset.

It makes sense that someone who has done their teacher training as an undergrad will come out of college thinking “teaching is my career,” while someone with a liberal arts degree might think “teaching is just one of many things I could do.” And perhaps career switchers entering teaching through alternative certification programs are more likely to see teaching as their long-term career, thinking “I have chosen teaching after examining all my other options” than teachers who are younger and haven’t had a chance to experiment. Are people who think “teaching is a good job” more or less likely to stay than teachers who think “I want to change the world”?

Is someone asking teacher preparation candidates questions like,
- Why do you want to be a teacher?
- How long do you intend to stay in teaching?

What about you?  Did you see teaching as your long-term career when you were preparing for it?  Do you still? 

Labels: Conversations

This is the perpetual challenge with trying to prepare teachers for sytemic change within schools with teachers who don’t see career trajectory as a twenty-thirty year journey. In my generation teachers came and stayed, sometimes to the detriment of the school, but most times developing into creditable careers of two decades time (as my stint lasted 21 years). Newer generations see a career as a two-five year period, moving quickly between and amnongst careers. How that jumping around can positively effect change within a school community is questionable. This is why TFA, however tremendous their candidate, has limited sheen. They are seen as great people destined to leave. They’ll do a great job with students but not their siblings, they will sparkle and move on to burnishing their resumes elsewhere. We look to prepare the career teacher, who may change schools within a district but remain devoted to deepening their understanding of the teaching dynamic as well as positively altering the school community. Is that still possible today?

TfA iften gets mixed reviews.  I have one friend who is on her second year in south Texas, and struggling to get by, another who finished her stint in a NY city gym, with only dividers in the gymnasium for a classroom.  Both have been determined to stay in teaching.  I attribute this more to their character than their time with TfA though.

I have not personally decided how long I will stay in teaching.  I know it is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, and I am nearly half-way through my legal commitment, but I have to consider my moral commitments and obligations to the students.

I continue to believe that it is not just the low pay teachers recieve that pushes them away from the profession, but the constantly frustrating lack of support at the school level.

Well my wife started teaching 3 years ago and she really loves it. She didn’t know if it was going to be “long term” or not. Opportunities come at funny times. I’m involved with this mmorpg community project even though 3 years ago I wasn’t even in the game industry...guess there’s almost so much planning you can do before you start living.

very interesting.. Keep it up.

I am not a teacher but im interested to be one. Well, it depends. Maybe i can.
shannon
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