Interest in Teaching: Motivations, Self-Perceptions, and the Decline in Interest

• In Event: The Teacher Pipeline Under Pressure: New Evidence on Interest, Certification, Hiring, and Retention

Abstract

This paper examines why interest in teaching has declined among college-bound students. Using administrative data from a large regional public university in the Pacific Northwest, we track students’ intended fields of study at the time of application for cohorts entering between 2005 and 2023. We define early interest in teaching based on whether applicants list an education-related major among their initial academic interests. We then link these records to a pre-enrollment survey administered from 2014 to 2023 that captures students’ motivations for attending college, self-assessed abilities, and reasons for choosing the institution.

We first document a substantial decline in interest in teaching over time, with the share of incoming students expressing interest in education falling from just above 10 percent in earlier cohorts to under 8 percent by 2023. Students interested in teaching differ systematically from their peers: they place greater weight on prosocial motivations, such as wanting to make a difference in society, place less weight on financial returns, and report stronger interpersonal skills but weaker quantitative and scientific orientation. These patterns align with longstanding characterizations of teaching as a profession that attracts individuals motivated more by intrinsic and social rewards than by earnings.

To assess why interest has fallen, we use Oaxaca–Blinder decompositions to separate changes in student composition from changes in how similar students evaluate teaching. The results show that the recent decline is driven primarily by changes in the relationship between student characteristics and teaching interest, not by shifts in who enrolls in college. In other words, the types of students historically inclined toward teaching are still present, but they are now less likely to choose education. A predictive analysis further shows that these students are not moving into one dominant alternative field; instead, they disperse across a range of disciplines. These findings suggest that the teacher pipeline problem lies less in changing student composition and more in a broader decline in the perceived attractiveness of teaching as a career.

Author

• Ian Callen, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author