Can Service-Teaching Affect One's Career Trajectory? Evidence From Teach for India

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Complexity of Teachers' Lives: Examining Autonomy, Collaboration, and Safety

Abstract

We examine how participating in a service-focused teaching corps affects participants’ career trajectories. Specifically, we ask if participating in Teach for India (TFI) affects participant-teachers’ career pathways post-TFI. We surveyed individuals who applied to TFI about their career choices, linked their responses to TFI admissions data, and then used propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to construct a comparison group among non-participants that was as similar as possible to TFI participants on observable characteristics. We find that participating in TFI has a large effect on the career pathways and values of former participants, and shifts the priorities of those who did not initially plan to pursue a career in education to work on issues of education inequality.

Authors

• Virginia Lovison, Harvard University

• Katharine Conn, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Cecilia Mo, University of California - Berkeley