A Calling to Teach: A Deeper Way to Understanding Retention in the Teaching Profession

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Ideology and Identity Across the Educator Career Span

Abstract

In examining how teachers discover, live, and define their calling to teach, this qualitative study on veteran teachers in different countries in the Americas, introduces five archetypes of callings: the listeners, the martyrs, the embedders, the builders, and the chosen ones. Each of them portrays a particular aspect of the experience of a calling to teach. The narratives of these five teachers, augmented by the 76 teachers interviewed who group themselves within these focal narratives, illuminate the power of calling and also suggest a rethinking of the role of spirituality in teachers’ work.

Author

• Cristóbal Madero, Universidad Alberto Hurtado