Abstract:
Ghana is among developing countries that use incentives to attract preservice teachers
to train as early childhood, primary and junior high school teachers in Colleges of
Education. This study sought to explore the motivation for the preservice teachers to
train as teachers in the Colleges of Education in Ghana. A survey was carried out with
3, 308 preservice teachers from ten Colleges of Education in Ghana. A multistage
sampling procedure involving stratified random sampling and purposive sampling
methods was used in the selection of the research participants. Questionnaire was used
to collect the data from the research participants. The data collected from the closed-ended
items was analyzed using both frequency counts/percentages and Pearson’s Correlation.
The data collected from the open-ended items were analysed qualitatively and presented
as narrative description with some illustrative examples. The study revealed among
others, that, the motivation to train as a teacher was not the main motive for the majority
of the preservice teachers to enroll on the teacher education programme but the opportunity
the teaching profession offers for one to eventually leave for the dream career.
Implications of the findings for policy and future research are provided.
