Career-Changers in Teacher Education: Impact and Challenges

• In Event: Exploring Dispositions in Lives of Teachers

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of the experience of professional career changers undertaking pre-service teacher preparation programmes, and on the perceptions of their teacher educators and of school principals employing career-changers in their schools. The research was grounded in literature about teacher motivation and efficacy, and the importance of developing professional learning communities in schools.
The career-changers were very positive about their potential contribution to teaching, but felt that their prior experience and expertise is often under-valued, particularly by their teacher educators. Teacher educators and principals, however, explicitly acknowledged the ‘added-value’ of career-changers, suggesting a need for further research to investigate the reasons for the career-changers perceptions about how their previously-acquired skills and attributes are recognised in the profession.

Author

• Chris Wilkins, University of Leicester