Teaching is (not) a career priority for student teachers: Empirical evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) plays a crucial role in preparing future teachers for the teaching profession. Indonesia has over 420 ITE with various qualities. Despite a significant number of teacher graduates from ITE, previous studies found that student teachers joining ITE do not necessarily mean they want to become teachers. However, the number of student teachers prioritising teaching as their career intention remains unknown. This mixed-methods explanatory sequential design study seeks to determine the portion of student teachers (N=409) of private and state universities in Indonesia who view teaching as a career priority and explore in-depth the rationale of student teachers’ who intend or do not intend to become teachers (N=14). The study found that student teachers who choose to become a teacher as their career priority are low (25,4 % in the private university and 37% in the state university). Even though the findings indicate that the low interest in the teaching profession is not static and likely to change, a small portion of student teachers interested in becoming teachers might impact the teacher competencies and retention rate. The findings suggest that teacher working conditions in Indonesia may be one possible reason for the small portion of student teachers prioritising teachers as a career. Further discussion of the findings and context analysis will also be included.