Choosing Teaching as a Career: Perspective of Pre-Service Teachers in Cameroon

Cameroon's Higher Teachers' Training Colleges (HTTCs) and Higher Teachers' Technical Training Colleges (HTTTCs) educate all teachers interested in working in the country's education system. Enrolments in initial teacher training programmes at Ecole Normale Superieur (ENS) and Ecole Normale Superieur d'Enseignement Technique (ENSET) have increased dramatically over the last decade, with peaks in numbers during the recession years. When beginning teachers complete their three-year courses with the Ministry of Higher Education, which funds their teacher education programme, there is some evidence of attrition.This study looked into the key extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic factors that influence people's decisions to pursue teaching as a profession in Cameroon. It also looked at the aspirations and plans of Cameroon's pre-service teachers. The research lasted six months and included a total of 210 teacher trainees in their first year (125 females and 85 males). The ‘Teaching Career Choice Scale' was used to investigate the different forms of encouragement that people have while considering teaching as a career. Subscales were added to the model of motivation types: influenced by others, career development, motivation, and alternative choice.The findings of the study revealed that male and female student teachers have similar motives in selecting teaching as a career. The mean scores for both genders were closely related. For altruistic factors, the mean ranges respectively for males and females were 32.41 and 32.26. Extrinsic factors stood at 40.18 and 37.06 respectively. Intrinsic and altruistic factors motivated teachers the less, scoring a mean range of 26.07 and 26.14. This paper also discussed the findings in relation to wider issues concerning gender, and drew conclusions which may be helpful to policy-makers and institutions in the recruitment of students into pre-service teacher training.

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