Motivation to Become a Teacher among Preservice Teachers in Colleges of Education in Ghana

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.