This presentation outlines two phases of a larger research project exploring what influences the decisions of career changers considering entering initial teacher education (ITE) programs as secondary science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) teachers. Ongoing global shortages of quality teachers, particularly prevalent in STEM subjects, have prompted increased policy interest into career change teachers (CCTs) as solutions to this problem, but little is known about their motivations and decisions. This presentation reports on a literature review of 29 international works on the motivations and decision-making of career changers considering teacher education programs. We found that prior experiences, changing circumstances, dispositions towards teaching, the status of teaching and support mechanisms influenced CCTs undertaking teaching pathways.
. Our literature synthesis uncovered sparse research into career changers who decided against pursuing teaching. We explored this, through individual and focus group interviews with 12 prospective career change teachers, specifically those considering STEM teaching careers.
We deductively categorised these themes using social realist Margaret Archer’s theorisations on emergent properties to identify the personal, structural enablements and constraints that influenced their decision-making, including workload, behaviour, the status of teaching and life circumstances. In the light of these findings, we make several recommendations for fruitful partnerships to promote recruitment of career changers into STEM teaching pathways.