STEM students’ career choice for teaching: studying career choice processes using personal projects
Teacher Development, vol. 27, pp. 133–152
Abstract
Understanding how teaching interest and motivation develop during the academic STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) study program is essential to design effective interventions to increase teacher recruitment. This article describes a new approach to study STEM teachers’ career choice processes. The retrospective method, which is based on personal projects analysis, focuses on the career choice process of STEM teachers during the academic study program as well as on their current personal values and goals, and the interconnection between these two. Evaluation took place in a small-scale explorative study with recently graduated STEM teachers. The results illustrate that the methodology provides insight into STEM teachers’ career choice processes in a personally salient and ecologically valid way. The use of personal projects provides structure and focus, but also enables large-scale data collection. Therefore, this research methodology could be positioned to complement survey studies and narrative inquiry.
Authors 3
-
Affiliation as printed
ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, Leiden, the Netherlands
-
Michiel Dam Aachen
Affiliation as printed
ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, Leiden, the Netherlands
-
Fred J. J. M. Janssen Aachen
Affiliation as printed
ICLON, Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, Leiden, the Netherlands
Cited by 4 stored of 4
4 results
No patents citing this paper on Lens.org (checked 2026-10-11).