Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale

Motivations for preservice teachers’ choice of teaching as a career were investigated using the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale (FIT-Choice scale; Watt & Richardson, 2007). This scale was initially developed and validated in the Australian context; our study applied it across international samples from Australia, the United States, Germany, and Norway. Support for strong factorial invariance implied the scale functioned similarly, and could fruitfully be employed in different contexts. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching were more similar than they were different across these samples; whereas, perceptions about the teaching profession tended to reflect country differences. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. International research interest in what motivates people to take on a teaching career has resulted in a steady flow of studies and reports from many countries, with notably early investigations in Britain during the depression (Valentine, 1934) and at the close of the Second World War (Tudhope, 1944). Although teaching would appear to be an occupation considered central to a country’s development and wellbeing, Australia, the U.S., Germany and Norway, among other countries including the U.K. and several European countries, report difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers (see Johnson & Birkeland, 2003; Liu, Kardos, Kauffman, Preske, & Johnson, 2000; OECD, 2004a,b, 2011; Ofsted, 2001; Preston, 2000; Ramsay, 2000). A pattern of teacher shortages followed by surpluses is a long cycle in most countries. The onset of the global financial crisis since 2008 may be likely to impact the supply of teachers particularly in countries where they are classified as public servants, who are offered job security and a funded retirement pension, despite relatively lower salaries to other occupations. However, contexts adversely affected by the financial downturn such as the U.S. and several European countries, are