Motivations and Meaning-Making in Becoming a Social Studies Teacher: A Narrative Inquiry

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching in Complex Times: Spotlight on Teaching Motivation and Emotions

Abstract

Given the increasing challenges to recruit and retain social studies teachers, it is essential to develop insights on why they enter the profession. This narrative inquiry employs Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity analyses of 58 life story interviews with preservice teachers to understand the past experiences that they interpret to have shaped their motivations to become teachers and the teachers they hope to be. Our findings suggest that participants construe deeply meaningful experiences in past role identities of K-12 social studies students as imbuing their future imagined teacher role identities with goals to give their students similar meaningful experiences. These findings have broad implications for teacher motivation theory and research, and for recruitment and retention of social studies teachers.

Authors

• MG Hodge, Temple University

• Alyssa Josselsohn, Temple University

• Youngseo Kim, Temple University

• Francisco Villa, Temple University

• Abby Reisman, University of Pennsylvania

• Timothy Patterson, Temple University

• Avi Kaplan, Temple University