Career choice among academically excellent students: Choosing teaching career as a corrective experience

Teaching and Teacher Education 73 (2018) 90e98

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Career choice among academically excellent students: Choosing teaching career as a corrective experience Efrat Kass*, Erez C. Miller Achva Academic College, School of Graduate Studies, Arugot, 7980400, Israel

h i g h l i g h t s
Early childhood experiences may affect career choice in adulthood.
Academically excellent college students choose a career in teaching as a corrective experience.
Teaching enables teachers to compensate for painful early experiences in various ways.
Discussing reasons for career choice could help raise awareness of implicit career motivations.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 5 July 2017 Received in revised form 19 March 2018 Accepted 26 March 2018

The present study examined implicit motivations of academically excellent students' choice of teaching careers rather than more prestigious occupations. Open, in-depth interviews were conducted with twelve students. Findings indicate that choosing a career in teaching served as a corrective experience for painful past experiences, and revealed four types of implicit motivations: (1) The experience of helplessness and the need to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy (2) The search for interpersonal boundaries as markers of identity (3) The need to belong: Warmth, caring, and individual attention and (4) Compensation for an unjust and humiliating experience in childhood. © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Career choice Academically excellent students Teacher training Implicit motivations Corrective experiences

1. Introduction Research supports the assumption that the quality of the teachers positively affects student achievements (e.g., Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2014; National Research Council, 2000; Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000; Harris & Sass, 2011; National Research; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005). While high quality of teachers may consist of many characteristics. However, recruiting academically excellent teachers is difficult due to the low income, work load and teaching status (Kirchhoff & Lawrenz, 2011). Furthermore, many of those who start out with a special program for academically excellent students end up abandoning their studies, either in the first couple of years or at the end of the program, in favor of other professions (Noble & Dowling, 2007). Thus, this research set

* Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E.C. Miller). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.015 0742-051X/© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

(E.

Kass),

[email protected]

out to explore what motivates students who demonstrate academic excellence to choose a profession in education. We were particularly interested in understanding why students with high achievements, including those who previously chose a career with high financial rewards or prestige, decided to change their course of studies and choose teaching as a career. Many studies on career choice tend to focus on motivations such as desire to work with children (Heinz, 2015; Jarvis & Woodrow, 2005; Jugovi c, Marusic, Pavin Ivanec, & Vizek Vidovic, 2012); financial reward and time for family (Richardson & Watt, 2005). The present study suggests an additional motive for choosing a career in teaching among academically excellent students e that choosing a teaching career serves as a corrective experience for prior painful life events. Expanding our understanding of motivations for choosing a teaching career could help develop programs that will attract academically excellent people who are looking for a profession that will enable them to develop their personality and provide them with self-actualization.

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This introduction will begin with a brief summary of the research regarding teaching as a career choice in general and then more specifically by high achievement students. 1.1. Teaching as a career choice There is an extensive literature regarding the motivations for choosing teaching as a career among students. Usually, researchers tend to attribute their motivations to one of the two following main categories (Anthony & Ord, 2008; Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006; Heinz, 2015; Watt et al., 2012): 1. Extrinsic motivations, such as reasons related to the benefits the teacher can gain from the profession of teaching, such as salary, a stable income, status and prestige, convenient working hours and vacations, or a leverage to other jobs. Thus, for example, researchers who focused on the social advantages (Klassen, AlDhafri, Hannok, & Betts, 2011; Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000; Mau, 2000) found that social and cultural contexts can have a substantial influence on students' motivations when choosing teaching as a career. 2. Friedman (2016) found that students in elementary education teacher training programs revealed an intricate array of intrinsic motivations for choosing a teaching career, combining different types of altruistic and narcissistic expectations of their role as future teachers, including genuine narcissism, benevolent narcissism, genuine altruism, and paternalistic altruism. Additional categories of intrinsic motivations may include natural abilities and propensities, as well as choosing teaching as a corrective experience for personal hardships endured earlier in life. Altruistic motivations may include the desire to help children and/or adolescents, the passion to share acquired knowledge, and the drive to become an agent of social change for the benefit of the community (Kass & Miller, 2011). Sometimes, these altruistic motivations developed from hardships endured earlier in life. For example, students of ethnic minorities; students from families living in disadvantaged socioeconomic conditions; people who experienced language difficulties or those who were themselves subject to a negative educational experience in school, considered themselves agents of social change (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011; Kass & Miller, 2011; McCarty & Bia, 2002). Narcissistic motivations may include perceiving teaching as a profession that enables lifelong development providing selfactualization, and a sense of purpose and mission (Ezer, Gilat, & Sagee, 2010; Katzin & Shkedi, 2011). Natural abilities and propensities comprise of natural affinity for teaching, a love of children, enjoyment, a sense of duty and responsibility associated with the role of teacher, leadership abilities, academic skills, and an intellectual challenge (Coulthard & Kyriacou, 2002; Heinz, 2015). Using one's personal narrative as a means to understanding career choice and later career construction, echoes recent developments in career development theories, specifically Savickas' theory (2005, 2012). 1.2. Choosing teaching as a corrective experience for personal hardships endured earlier in life Attachment, childhood experiences and family history may have a major influence on career choices (Palos¸ & Drobot, 2010; Wright & Perrone, 2008). People choose an occupation that enables them to replicate significant childhood experiences and satisfy needs that were unfulfilled in their childhood (Obholzer & Roberts, 1997). Such career choices may enable them to reconstruct significant

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childhood memories, to satisfy unrealized childhood desires. Indeed, some researchers found, the choice of a teaching career is rooted in the personal life story of the teachers (Costigan, Crocco, & Zumwalt, 2004; Goodson & Hargreaves, 1996; Lavian, 2014; Levin, 2003). Pines (2002) reviewed motivations for choosing a teaching career, and found that the emergence of reasons related to painful childhood experiences and memories, such as the experience of loneliness, living under imminent danger, experiencing fear and anxiety, as well as experiences of humiliation and helplessness. Kass (2012) examined the development of sense of teachers' professional efficacy. Teachers' low sense of efficacy started developing during their childhood, and was heavily influenced by their parents, the authority figures at home. When they started working in schools, they expected that the principal (the authority figure at work), would enable them to experience at work a sense of compensation for the lack of support for their emerging sense of self-efficacy that they did not receive at home. However, those motivations, as far as we know, were not evaluated among the unique group of academically excellent students, a highly desirable group for the teaching profession. Since academically excellent students can choose from a variety of professions, it is of interest to explore their unique motivations for career choice in education and hopefully use this understanding to attract academically excellent students to the education profession. 1.3. Academically excellent students' choice of a teaching career There are programs for academically excellent students in many academic fields, and they serve the important function of imparting knowledge and training students with high achievements. Despite the obvious advantages of attracting high quality candidates to study teaching, programs for academically excellent students are not commonly found in teacher training institutions, although some countries (e.g., Singapore, Finland and South Korea) make a deliberate and exceptional effort to recruit academically excellent students for teaching (Auguste, Kihn, & Miller, 2010). Special programs that compete for academically excellent candidates with advanced degrees, such as 'Teach for America', enable students to work as teachers after a brief training period of a few months. However, programs such as these do not manage to fulfill their overall goal, as it appears that many of these teachers choose to leave the profession after a few years (Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin, & Vasquez Heilig, 2005; Donaldson & Moore Johnson, 2011). In their attempts to attract highly capable and promising students to join the profession, some teacher training institutions offer these students a program with numerous advantages, such as extended scholarships, a small number of students per class, working with uniquely highly ranked lecturers, and personal mentoring for each student throughout the course of studies. The special study tracks designed for this population address students' needs on various levels. The need to engage students in a challenging, high quality program of studies is addressed by offering an extensive curriculum with many electives and enrichment courses, as well as requisite project courses that involve empirical research, thus providing students the chance to work on problem-solving and to engage in philosophical discussions. In terms of students' personal development, the design of the program for academically excellent students is such that it enables them to enhance and hone their skills in the company of peers, which in turn encourages meaningful social relationships. In addition, students have the opportunity to improve their leadership skills through participation in academic activities, to acquire practical experiences in the field, and to develop independent thinking (Howley et al., 2012). However, as promising as this program seems, among these

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students the choice of a teaching career is far from frequent; A broad review of the literature regarding motivations for choosing education as a profession found that US college graduates with the highest academic abilities did not tend to choose a profession in education. Indeed, an inverse correlation was found between the choice of a teaching career and students' academic abilities (Guarino et al., 2006), and students with higher SAT scores preferred more lucrative fields of study or advanced degrees (Robertson, Smeets, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2010), although professional training and career choice among students with higher SAT scores was affected by the students' profile of strengths and their gender (Wang, Eccles, & Kenny, 2013). In Israel, the teacher-training programs in colleges are comprised of a four-year program, which integrates theoretical studies with hands-on practice in the schools (Ben-Peretz, LandlerFredo & Hanucka, 2010). Students graduate from their four year teacher training with a Bachelor's degree in Education and a teaching certificate. In order to attract academically excellent students, many colleges offer them an accelerated three year program, as well as other special benefits. This implies that perhaps these programs focus on primarily on extrinsic motivations and do not fully understand what truly motivates high achiever students to become teachers. This raises the question: What are the intrinsic motivations to choose teaching as a profession among academically excellent students? 2. Methodology To understand the internal world of academically excellent students and their motivations to choose of profession, the present study used a narrative methodology (Atkinson, 2007; Clark, 2001; Costigan, 2004; Orland & Rust, 2001; Shkedi, 2016). Clandinin and Connelly (1996) spoke of teachers' 'secret stories'. The goal of the current study was to discern from these secret stories the hidden motivations of academically excellent students' choice of a career in teaching. 2.1. Participants The length of most undergraduate teacher training programs in Israel is four years. For approximately a decade, teacher training colleges in Israel have offered a three year undergraduate accelerated program, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, intended for individuals whose scores on the psychometric (college entrance) exams were exceptionally high. College students who complete this program are awarded with a B.Ed degree and a teaching certificate in various specialties (special education, elementary or secondary mathematics or science education, language arts), though most of them chose special education. Therefore, enrollment in this program meant studying in an accelerated teacher training program (in three years, as opposed to the regular four year teacher training program), in any teaching specialty chosen by the student. Based on their profiles of academic excellence, all undergraduate students attending this program (N ¼ 12) were selected to participate in this study. Two participants were men and ten were women, whose ages ranged between 23 and 34 years, with an average age of 27 years. It should be noted that most Israeli college students start their academic studies only after 2e3 years of military service, working for about a year in temporary jobs and travelling overseas for another year. Thus, their average age when entering their undergraduate studies is usually higher than their counterparts in other countries. Of these students, nine had already begun studying 1e2 years in other university programs, such as: Biology, Industrial Management, Tourism Management, Economics and Business Management. Three other students had

planned to study law, medicine and speech therapy at the university, but eventually chose to pursue a teacher training program. Most of them worked in temporary jobs prior to entering the teacher training program. 2.2. Research procedure and instruments Students were asked to be interviewed about their motivation to participate in the accelerated program for academically excellent students. Interviews were held either at the college in which they studied or at the students' homes, according to the personal preference of each interviewee. Prior to the interview, they were all informed about the general purpose of the study and then signed on an informed consent form. Open ended, in-depth interviews lasting approximately 1.5 h were conducted with each student separately. Following the BNIM (Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method) protocol for narrative interviewing (Wengraf, 2001), at the beginning of the interview, each student was asked: 'Please 'Tell me your life story, all the events and experiences that have been important to you personally, begin wherever you want to begin, I won't interrupt'. In addition, each participant was informed that the interviewer would take notes to be used later in the interview. After each participant shared his or her life story in a free flowing manner, the interviewer asked for more specific narratives based on the sequence of topics raised throughout the narrative, using the words or terms expressed by the narrator. If needed, based on the notes taken during the original narrative, some additional nonnarrative questions were asked for clarification or expansion. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by a professional company. One of the advantages of the life story methodology is that the narrators would have the final say in the way his or her life story would be presented. We believed that the narrator should be consulted regarding our interpretation of the narrative, and not only about the form in which it is presented. Following this approach, after each narrative was analyzed, and the connection between early experiences and later choice of becoming a teacher, in a follow-up the interviewee was asked for his or her perception of this interpretation. With the exception of one student, all interviewees agreed with the interpretation of the findings. The one student that did not immediately agree with the interpretation presented to her, said that the interpretation was plausible and that she still need to reflect upon it. 2.3. Data analysis After the interviews had been transcribed, the researchers read through them thoroughly several times. The data were analyzed based on open content analysis, based on the following four stages: Codes or 'anchors' identified within the data; concepts (grouping similar codes together); categorizing (grouping concepts based on their similarities); and developing theoretical explanations of the emerging categories from the interview, which could explain the interviewee's choice of a career in teaching. The main motivations that emerged from the student's narrative were identified (Bergman, 2010). In addition, a separate content analysis of randomly selected interviews was performed by an independent researcher. The researcher found similar categories, and disagreements were discussed and resolved. The purpose of this additional analysis was to triangulate the findings. 2.4. Ethical considerations Participants were guaranteed complete anonymity and that no

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personal details would be disclosed. Personal details, such as name and place of residence, were altered to disguise the students' identities. Most of the findings are presented in the form of a table (see Table 1), without providing the corresponding quotations, both due to the limited length of the article and mainly in order to ensure the anonymity of the participants. This is a familiar dilemma for any qualitative researcher: On one hand, one wishes to provide the greatest amount of detail to ensure that the reader has access to all of the information, while on the other hand, one feels compelled to protect the study participants from any possible harm resulting from the publication of the study. In this study in particular, it was necessary to take great measures to protect the participants' identities, not only because this was a small group that was well known in the college, but also because of the highly sensitive information divulged in the interviews. 3. Findings In view of the constraints related to publication, the findings are presented in two ways: 1. One case study in a detailed way, demonstrating the complexity of the life story. Following this case study will be a summary of the four categories that were found using examples from the interviews. 2. A table of all participants. 3.1. L.'s case When L. was asked to talk about her childhood, she mentioned several crises that she experienced in her life. When she was very young, her father had cosigned a loan in order to help his sister, an act which led to severe financial difficulties for the entire family over a period of many years. Later, when L. was ten years old, her parents sent her to live with her grandparents in a distant city for a year and a half. Two years ago, this grandfather passed away in front of her eyes. In addition, several years ago, both her mother and her grandmother had to battle breast cancer, as a result of which the grandmother had passed away. L. also spoke of the tension and the arguments between her parents, which led her to decide that she would never attempt to pursue any intimate relationship or seek a partner with whom to share her life. She also described her sister as being the favorite at home, whereas L. herself was always the one who was admonished by the parents, which is the reason that she has always felt jealous of her sister. 'I was always on the outside, while she was more at the center of things. That's something that has stayed with me ever since. It doesn't go away'. Her relationship with her parents was a difficult one; she had a close relationship only with her younger brother. L. described herself 'in terms of character, I was much more … much more modest. I was shy, I rarely spoke, even with friends; (stutter) my closest friend in high school e I barely shared with her'. She described herself as always being a submissive child who sought to please others. Later on in the interview, L. told the interviewer that she had always wanted to be 'Superman' and that this aspiration remained with her until today: L.: I've always loved watching cartoons with my younger brother. One of my favorite heroes was Superman. Superman has Lois Lane, whom he always saves; he comes and helps her, and she helps him at some point too; so, very simply, in the stories I wrote, I fulfilled that role. Just an alternative character for me to be, and to identify with … it's something that began when I was a little girl. In a follow-up meeting, the interviewer said: “There are two things here. There's 'I want to be saved from … ' and there's also 'I

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want to be strong enough to save myself and others from … ', which L. confirmed: "Yes, that's right … ". L.'s parents wanted her to study law or medicine. Although she described herself as a good girl who wanted to accommodate others, at this point she refused and rebelled: Probably against life e no, not life e against this framework of … of the family itself. Sometimes I caught myself thinking and saying to myself: I must … I must get out of this house; I must become independent in order to give [to others] and to do what I want, not what they dictate from above. Despite her parents' disapproval, she chose to study teaching. When she was asked to explain her reasons, she replied that during her highschool studies she made up her mind about become a teacher: "During literature and history classes in which the teachers used to dictate the lessons to us, I would start imagining how I would have taught it in a different way … I simply reached the conclusion that I decided to be better than my own teachers were." Later on she added: "I don't remember at which stage I decided that I want to become a teacher. At first I decided that I want to become a history teacher, and I did all that I could to achieve it." Despite her parents' disapproval of her career choice, L. was determined to pursue a teaching career: "I don't know what being a teacher means for him … I know that he thinks that I could do better, but I explained to him that it's true that I could do better, but that's what I want." When she was directly asked why she wanted to become a teacher, she explained: "It all started with a book that I've read … [I believe that] it's a respectable profession that can influence people." 3.1.1. Analysis and interpretation There are three major axes in L.'s story: a. 'There are many crises and challenges in life, and I want to be saved, but I also want to be strong enough to save myself and others' (Superman and Lois Lane). b. 'All my life I have felt like I don't belong; I wasn't loved; I wasn't appreciated. My only close relationship was with my little brother'. Therefore, it seems that L. yearned for a sense of belonging and embeddedness. c. 'I wanted to stop being the child who wants to please others and begin to be the one who makes her own decisions, to be the one with the power'. Therefore, it seems that L. wanted to gain control over her life and develop self-direction. In light of these axes, L.'s choice of a career in teaching can be understood as a means of addressing these three needs. a. Being a teacher enables L. to be the heroine who saves children enot physically, but psychologically. Thus, perhaps this way L. somehow aspired for a corrective experience for her childhood. She did not see this connection before, but she confirmed it later when she was asked about the interpretation of the findings. L. said: "What you said to me is not completely strange to me. But I never said it to myself. Thank you, you helped me understand important things … " b. Teaching can also address L.'s need to belong and to receive love. L. described during her interview about her difficulty relationships with her parents, her sister, other authority figures later in life, and her difficulty to get close to the other students in the program and to the teachers at the school where she did her field experience practicum. If she becomes a teacher, she could earn the children's love and have a sense of belonging, something she clearly yearned for: "I want the class to feel like a family that is the pupils will care one for another" and also "I will get love

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Table 1 Summary of findings for all participants. Interpretation of the findings

Name Initial Career Choice Crisis

Corrective Experience

U.

First-year Biology at Severe car accident causing head trauma and The choice to study the University. disability. special education.

I.

One year of Industrial Management at the University. One year of Special Education Studies at the University.

To educate children who have difficulties, to show them it is possible to succeed, just as he does. Chose to study special Needs to experience successful achievements education. in this field, in contrast to the previous field, as a way of building self-efficacy, which was also lacking during childhood. Chose to study special 1. The need to belong, the need for education at the college. relationships and warmth. 2. Need for personal attention which was missing from the home. Special education, but not As a child, both of her parents needed to be taken care of, but due to her age, she was in the function of a unable to care for them. Now she wants to teacher, rather as a take care of others, to work with autistic therapist. children, to help them connect between their inner and outer selves.

H.

Her father, who had a military career, was absent from most of her childhood, but was also overprotective. Being overprotected led to a poor sense of self-efficacy. The father, who was a lawyer, was barely at home; problematic relationship with the mother. Wanted to transfer to a boarding school. The father had a severe work accident when she was just a child and the mother went through two years of depression, due to the death of her own parents (B.'s grandparents) soon after the father's accident. In addition, as a child she felt a gap between her inner and outer self: on the inside, she was sad due to the situation at home, but on the outside, she wore a clown's mask and was reckless. Special education. As a young student at school, her teacher pulled her hair, but later denied it, and the school believed the teacher.

B.

Planned to study Law.

N.

Intended to study Law.

G.

One year of Tourism Ostracized by the children in her class; the Management at the teacher knew about this yet failed to intervene. University

T.

Immediately enrolled in Special Education and Language Arts.

L.

Childhood deficiencies and crisis events, such as financial difficulties, problematic relationship with the parents, disease of the mother and grandparents and the death of the latter. Felt like an outsider, unloved. Needed to accommodate her parents' wishes. When she was in seventh grade, her parents Had intended to split up due to her father's affair with another study Speech woman. She witnessed many arguments Therapy or between the parents; they wanted her to Physiotherapy. make decisions in their place. The relationship with the father, who started a new family, is eto this day–very distant. Her relationship with her mother, who she perceives as having sacrificed herself for the sake of the children, is a difficult and complicated. During her childhood, she had to move many times, in the country and overseas. Studied dog training. Was a good and acquiescent little girl. The message from her parents was that the most important thing was to be a good human being, whereas studying was less important. Neither her mother's nor her older sister's job leaves room for growth or for realizing one's true potential. Studied two years of Grew up in a home in which the mother had difficulty recognizing boundaries while the Economics and father was extremely strict about boundaries. Business Describes himself as one who throughout Administration at childhood and youth revolted against limits as the University. part of his search for himself. Experienced one psychotic episode (which could be considered a transgression of boundaries). Her mother is a pathological hoarder who Studied first year Management at the remains untreated and slips into depression. She does not demonstrate emotion towards University. her children, nor is she a functional mother. The father is constantly busy at work and is

K.

V.

R.

Y.

Had intended to study Law or Medicine at the University.

Special education.

Her father had to cope with several Special education and difficulties: an accident on the job and several language arts. layoffs, but he smiled and came to terms with the way things were. Her mother almost died in giving birth to her, yet continued having children after that. Special education.

Special education.

Wants to "fight for justice"', to represent the helpless children and thus to repair her own childhood experience of being the victim of an injustice. Wants to be a caring, involved, sensitive, and a fair teacher, to be the complete opposite of the teacher, she had, who was indifferent to her experience of suffering. Wishes to find meaning in life, the desire to have an impact. Her parents, who were her role models, had life-threatening experiences, and their method of coping with difficulties made her understand that life is a gift that should not be wasted, but should be imbued with meaning and significance. Engaging in a teaching career would enable her to feel strong, independent, appreciated, accepted, and loved, which in turn would enable her to save others.

Feels like an outsider e does not belong anywhere, due to the many moves experienced. Does not belong in the family, due to the parent's divorce; does not belong to the mother or with the father. A career in teaching enables her to belong to a group. As a teacher, she can feel powerful and thus compensate for the experience of helplessness which followed her parents' divorce.

Education with a specialty Grew up with a low sense of self-efficacy. Wants to "help people discover their in language arts and strengths". sciences.

Interviewees Reaction Agreed with the interpretation. Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Did not express complete agreement; said she needed to think about it.

Agreed with the interpretation.

Secondary math education.

School is a framework with clear limits and Agreed with the boundaries, yet these are not overly strict and interpretation. the teacher has a good deal of freedom to work according to his own beliefs within these boundaries.

Special education. "Working with youth at risk and being a meaningful adult figure in their lives".

Since her childhood and up until the present Agreed with the day, her parents have not been present in her interpretation. life in the sense of behaving and functioning responsibly or emotionally as parents ought. To compensate for this experience, she wishes

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Table 1 (continued ) Name Initial Career Choice Crisis

Corrective Experience

barely part of their life. Therefore, this student takes responsibility for her parents, her brother, and keeps the household running.

from my pupils." Following the interview, after sharing the interpretation of the findings with her, L. said: 'Being a Teacher will give me meaning, high sense of self-esteem and love from my pupils'. c. As a teacher, she holds the power and authority in the classroom, she makes decisions on her own, and thus she can escape the place dictated to her by her parents, of being a good and acquiescent child: 'When I was a teenager I didn't argue with my parents. I didn't have my own independent thought. I was stuck in my house' At the end of the interview, L. was asked: Why do you think you chose to become a teacher? As your father said, you could have become many different things. So really, why do you want to become a teacher? What are you looking for? L.: "[Do you mean] What will it give me? Maybe it will give meaning to the way I manage myself, the way I speak, the way I think … " Thus, by choosing a teaching career, L. sought a corrective experience and meaningfulness to compensate for the deficiencies experienced in childhood and in her parents' home. Thus far, L. story was described in detail. Following are presented the findings resulting from the open analysis of all participants. First the summarizing table is presented, which describes the participants' narratives according to the following criteria: Name, initial career choice, crisis, corrective experience, interpretation of the findings, and interviewees' reaction. After describing the participants, their background and their response to the interpretation of the findings, the motivations for choosing a teaching career will be described in detail. Our research question was: What propels academically excellent people to choose a teaching career? This question is particularly important in light of the fact that most of the students in the current study had begun pursuing other prestigious professions (law, management, economics, etc.), but then had a change of heart and decided to discontinue that course of studies and instead chose a teaching career. It appears that the choice of a teaching career was intended to correct past painful experiences. In addition to the explicit reasons for becoming a teacher, such as 'I love children', 'I want to teach them their history', sharing the interpretation of the findings helped most of the participants become aware of additional, implicit reasons for choosing a career in teaching. These reasons could be termed as their 'secret personal story', which, in a sense, was not known to the students themselves until the interpretation of the findings was presented to them. Categorizing painful experiences reported by additional participants revealed several types of motivations (for some of the participants, there was more than one motivation at work):

3.1.2. The experience of helplessness and the need to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy There are many aspects to the role of teacher. The teacher is a follower within the organization, but a leader in the classroom (Friedman & Kass, 2002). Thus, the teacher is a figure whose presence and influence are highly significant in the students' lives, since teachers have a leadership power in the class. This experience

Interpretation of the findings

Interviewees Reaction

to be a significant presence in the lives of youths at risk. She herself was at risk at one point because of the dysfunctional home; however, there was no one there for her then.

of power and significance can compensate for the experience of helplessness these people faced in childhood due to their personal and family-related circumstances. In this category, many reasons for a sense of helplessness during childhood were found, such as: parents' depression, parents' illness, financial difficulties or divorce. For example, T.'s story. When she was in seventh grade, her parents split up due to her father's affair with another woman. She was caught in the web of her parents' divorce since her parents could not reach an agreement regarding custody. Thus, they forced her to make decisions instead of them, such as with whom she will choose to live. As a little child, she felt very helpless in these situations. During the interview she said that becoming a teacher, was connected to her childhood, but could not say in what way. She did mention that as a teacher: "I feel powerful". In another narrative, B., tells a complex story of motivations for choosing a career in teaching. At an earlier part of her narrative, she tells about her father who was injured in a work accident and whose mother experienced depression related to the death of the grandparents: At some point when I was little, my father had a work-related injury, and sold his business. Since then we did not do too well financially … When I was twelve, my mother's parents each passed away from cancer within a year, and she became really depressed. For two or three years she didn't work, was at home all the time. Which brought the whole family situation downwards." This mini-narrative retells a story that revealed her helplessness, due to her inability to take care of her parents and their needs, which was acknowledged by B. later in the interview. In addition she shared that a personal difficulty which she experienced early in life also affected her choice to become a teacher in special education, especially with children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder): This special education, specifically it interested me, since although I could easily connect with anyone, and a happy-go-lucky kinda girl, nobody really knows what's going on inside me, what I really think and feel … so I could really connect with children who can't express what they feel inside. And that even if they do want to express themselves, they can't really do it and they have a whole world inside them, and it really interested me to try and open it all up and help them express their inner world … As a teacher in the field of special education, she could find an empowering in educating children with ASD who are in need of her care: "I want to help someone else. I love to help others. I think that their success is my success."

3.1.3. The search for interpersonal boundaries as markers of identity The teaching profession allows for a wide range of choices in terms of setting boundaries. On the one hand, there are clear rules that are not to be transgressed, for example, avoiding violence, while on the other hand, the flexibility of those boundaries allows the teacher to independently set his or her own parameters within

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the classroom and to decide the degree of strictness or flexibility with which these rules should be kept. Thus, teaching is a profession that allows one to move freely, yet within a clear set of flexible boundaries. In the present study, some participants experienced significant boundary issues in family or interpersonal relationships earlier in life. Thus, teaching became a corrective experience to various problematic interpersonal boundaries in childhood (absence of boundaries or extremely strict or lax boundaries). This was the case of U., who lost himself between the mother's blurred boundaries and the father's strict ones: "As a 5 year old child I could stay awake all night and my mother didn't care. But my father e this is a different story. He is a very strict, inflexible person" and in another place in the interview he added: "All the time I'm searching, looking who am I".

3.1.4. The need to belong: warmth, caring, and individual attention The teacher has the potential to be the most important figure who determines classroom relationships, both among the students and between the students and the teacher. When these relationships are positive, they may be characterized by affection, spiritual and emotional closeness, feelings of belonging and unison, all of which contribute to a general sense of a 'warm and caring family', which could somehow compensate for what was missing during the teacher's childhood. Indeed, some participants lacked warm, caring and appreciative relationships in their families, as was described in G.'s narrative: My parents divorced when I was in second grade … I didn't have a connection with my father for many years … with my mother- I don't know how to define my relationships with her, I don't know how to feel her. …. I want to be part of something. Thus, the class served as an alternative family, which could compensate for the emotional deficiencies experienced in childhood. H. grew up in a home where she did not experience a sense of belonging, nor did she receive the warmth of a caring adult. In elementary school she had some conflicts with her classmates, and therefore chose to study in a different high school. She mentioned the absence of individual attention at home: My father is barley around, he works from 8 a.m. till 23:00 p.m., he is an independent lawyer. As for my childhood, no, it wasn't simple at home. I also wanted to go to boarding school when I was in the ninth grade. I don't get along with my mother, we are very much different in the way we see things, so there were many conflicts during my adolescence years which created tension and a bit of distance between us. In my family, I never felt that I belong, a feeling which I very much miss, even today … In another place in the interview she spoke of the purpose of her work with young children, in an attempt to help them feel better connected to the school and to others: Perhaps it's because the exceptional children do not really belong to the normative school … perhaps my role is really to help them advance and connect e in my earlier experience volunteering with young children it was helping them enter [an inclusive] first grade classroom. We kept on working on it and it was really our prime objective e to help them feel included … because in inclusive education the child DOES feel that he's like all the other children his age … At the end of the interview, when asked if she would like to add

anything else, she responded: I think that in my case, it came mainly from my family, where I didn't feel so much that I belong and I really really missed it to those day … I still carry that feeling, knowing that I'm not like by brothers … it affected my entire life. Another example is R.'s narrative. She, too, felt like she did not have a sense of belonging to a particular place, due to the family's frequent moves and the nuclear family disintegration following the father's act of adultery. She felt emotionally disconnected from both parents. Now, in relation to her career choice, she said: "How do I feel? I feel like the class is my home".

3.1.5. Compensation for an unjust and humiliating experience in childhood In this category, there are stories of injustice and unfairness the participants have felt during their school years. Thus, becoming a teacher enabled them to experience a sense of correction by being teachers who adhere to the principles of justice and fairness. N. spoke of a traumatic event she experienced as a student at school: I was at school and I simply fell asleep during class and then the teacher came and pulled me by the hair and lifted me in front of the whole classroom, and I was shocked, I started crying and went out. She (the teacher) lied and told the principal that she caressed my head and since I don't like people touching me I responded aggressively. For me it was a great injustice, the whole class saw it, but the school's principal believed the teacher. N. continued to carry with her the insult and humiliation she felt then as a result of this injustice, which is why she wanted to 'fight for justice', to ensure that her students are shielded from any similar experiences. G. was ostracized by her fellow students at school, and remained extremely angry at her own teacher, who knew about this yet failed to intervene. She hoped to be a caring, involved, sensitive, justice pursuing teacher e precisely the opposite of her former teacher who was indifferent to her suffering: The thing I remember mostly from elementary school was that during sixth grade, as happens to many children, I was being boycotted … I took it really hard since I had to replace all my circle of friends. What I do remember from that experience is that I was very hurt from the way my teacher responded, and I think it somehow affected my considerations of choosing a teaching career. Because she did not initiate any intervention, and it bothered me. She DID know that there was a boycott against me … and I felt the she was a complicit accomplice, meaning that she chose to ignore it. That's how I viewed it, from my perspective … that's the feeling that I've had at the time. Later in the interview, G. told the interviewer: Because I saw that the teacher had a lot of leeway to intervene and she didn't do it at the time, I developed some sensitivity to these issues. I very much believe that a teacher shouldn't only teach e the whole issue of educating is very important to me, so I somehow connect it to what I've experienced [during the boycott] … and when I will become a teacher, I hope it'll be different. I'm sure that I'll know how to identify it [such social processes in class] and treat it differently, because I'll be sensitive to it.

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In another place during the interview G. said: "I am still looking for justice that does not always exist in the world. Many times the injustice irritates me as if I never completely accepted the fact it doesn't always exists." 4. Discussion Our research question tried to examine why academically excellent students who started their professional development in more prestigious occupations, made a less obvious choice of a teaching career. The findings indicate that among all the participants in the current study, the main reason was to seek a corrective experience to painful early experiences at home or at school, such as experiencing helplessness and low sense of self-efficacy, enmeshed interpersonal boundaries at home, a need to belong and feel appreciated, or a compensation for an unjust or humiliating experience in childhood. These findings support the literature on childhood unfulfilled needs and their effect on career choice (e.g., Palos¸ & Drobot, 2010; Wright & Perrone, 2008). Regarding a teaching career, the current study supports Pines' (2002) claim that the choice of a teaching career is intended to imbue people's live with significance and to heal their childhood painful experiences. While the initial purpose of the present study was to examine the motivations of academically excellent students to become teachers, it inadvertently helped the student teachers understand unaware and unspoken reasons that influenced them to switch from a more prestigious field of study to a teaching career. The present study contributes to the research on motivations for choosing a career in teaching, by focusing on academically excellent college students, whose career choice motivations is less known. The findings confirm that the participants' desire was to play a significant role in and have a positive influence on the lives of others. Being a teacher, and as such a leader of a class of young people, fulfilled that desire. It appears that most of them chose to pursue a teaching certificate in special education, possibly because it is among the more prestigious certification programs at the school of education. Another explanataion is that teachers in special education have greater autonomy over curricular and instructional decisions, and the smaller class size enables the teacher to cultivate a closer relationship with each student. In addition, it is possible that the implicit motivation to choose a career in special education was not only to have a corrective experience for themselves. Additionally, it might be that these teachers in training aspired to prevent or ameliorate the challenging experiences by some of their pupils with special educational needs. Therefore, it is important that during their training student teachers would have the opportunity to explore and examine their motivations for becoming teachers (Friedman, 2016). Self-awareness is a critical tool for teachers, as they make multiple professional and interpersonal decisions every day. These decisions may significantly affect their students' achievements, conduct and social and emotional development, as well as the teachers' ability to successfully cope with the challenges of teaching. We would like to suggest that teachers' awareness of their career choice motivations, as well as implicit cognitive and emotional mechanisms that affect them in everyday life, are important for people who work with children. Such self-awareness could help them receive more balanced, well thought-through decisions in certain situations that might remind them of their own earlier experiences. In addition, Friedman's (2016) study of narcissistic and altruistic motivations of teachers, claimed: “We will therefore conclude, with appropriate caution that teachers who succeed in realizing their narcissistic and altruistic aspirations may persist in their role for many years, and those who do not succeed in adapting their

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psychological and professional aspirations to the classroom reality may experience stress and hardship” (p.19). The importance of selfawareness to one's painful childhood experiences and their impact on their career choice and identity, is also reflected in Savickas' (2012) statement regarding career construction, suggesting that “by holding onto the self in the form of a life story that provides coherence and continuity, they are able to pursue their purpose and projects with integrity and vitality." Following Friedman, we believe that greater awareness of implicit motivations to become teachers among academically excellent students could help them develop a more cognizant professional identity and practice. We recommend that special programs for academically excellent students should consider including workshops on teacher identity development and teaching career motivations. Such workshops could help these future teachers become more self-aware and process early experiences which could affect their teaching. 4.1. Limitations of the study The sample in the present study included only twelve participants from a singular program for academically excellent students, most of whom were women. Therefore we recommend examining the motivations of this unique group of academically excellent students among larger and more diverse samples in different countries, who study in various teacher training specialties. The findings of the present study raise several important questions for further research: How awareness of motivation to become a teacher as a corrective experience could be developed during teacher training? Are additional groups of students implicitly choose to become teachers as a corrective experience of early painful experiences? How could the findings of the present study help administrators recruit and retain academically excellent students for teacher training programs? In additional, since it is likely that academically excellent student teachers would be more rapidly promoted to leadership roles once they enter the field, school principals should be aware that classroom teaching may serve as an important, perhaps an essential role in their lives as a corrective experience for satisfying earlier, implicit needs. However, this assumption should be examined empirically. Hopefully the understanding of implicit motivations can assist decision makers in developing teacher training programs for academically excellent students that will respond not only to explicit motivations but will also address their implicit motivations and needs. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data related to this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.015. References Achinstein, B., & Ogawa, R. T. (2011). Change(d) agents: New teachers of color in urban schools. Teachers College Press. Anthony, G., & Ord, K. (2008). Change of career secondary teachers: Motivations, expectations and intentions. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 36(4), 359e376. Atkinson, R. (2007). The life story interview as a bridge in narrative inquiry. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 224e245). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Auguste, B. G., Kihn, P., & Miller, M. (2010). Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top-third graduates to careers in teaching: An international and market research-based perspective. McKinsey. Ben-Peretz, M., Landler-Fredo, G., & Hanuck, S. (2010). Teacher-training and planning curricula: Could they work together? The Israeli Department of Education. Journal of Theory and Practice, 21, 215e232 ([Hebrew]).

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