The Passion of Teaching: Learning From an Older Generation of Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 95
  In Roundtable Session: Narrative Inquiry, Self-Efficacy, and Learning From Experienced Teachers

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated the effectiveness of an intergenerational teacher education pedagogy requiring preservice teachers to interview retired teachers about their experiences of teaching and their experiences of learning to become teachers. Findings suggest that the preservice teachers were inspired by the older teachers’ emotional connection to the profession and in turn, their own passion for teaching developed or intensified. They also demonstrated greatly enhanced perceptions of the value of teaching as a long-term career and had their choice of profession affirmed as they heard from their interviewees about the importance of teaching. This strategy supports preservice teachers to develop resiliency, commitment and passion for teaching and therefore, potentially increased longevity within the profession.

Authors

• Marilyn Jean Pietsch, Charles Sturt University

• Ninetta Santoro, Charles Sturt University

• Tracy Borg, Charles Sturt University