Factors Influencing Teaching Career Choice Among Student Teachers in Cambodian Teacher Education Colleges
- AIOR Admin
- Oct 4
- 2 min read
Sinourn Huot, Rany Sam, Thou Nguon
National University of Battambang, Cambodia
An education system should strive to attract well-qualified teachers and teacher candidates who have a high degree of professional commitment to meet society requirements such as teacher shortages, increasing numbers of schools and students (MoEYS, 2023), teacher policy adjustments (TPAP: 2024--2030, 2023) and Cambodia’s socioeconomic status (ESP: 2024--2028, 2024) toward country development. This study aims to investigate the factors influencing teaching career choice among fourth-year primary and lower secondary school student teachers at Teacher Education Colleges (TECs). The study uses a quantitative paradigm with the survey method in the form of a structured questionnaire, which was adapted from Sardana et al. (2021) and Martinez Moreno & Petko (2023), to collect the data. A simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 223 participants, including both primary and lower secondary student teachers, whose ages ranged from 22--25 years (71.3%), 26--29 years (24.2%) and 4.5% of the other ages. This study uses descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the validity, reliability, mean, standard deviation, and significance of the collected data through a one-sample t test. The study revealed four main factors that influence the decision to choose teaching as a career, such as the influence of others, including family, friends, teachers and mass media; extrinsic, intrinsic, and altruistic motivational influences; and teaching as a fallback career and sociocultural factor. Altruistic motivation had the most significant influence on teaching career choice, with the highest mean score (M=4.26, SD=0.59), whereas teacher influence had the second greatest influence (M=4.20, SD=0.65), followed by intrinsic motivation (M=4.17, SD=0.62), while teaching as a fallback career had the least influence on all four factors, with the lowest mean score (M=2.37, SD=1.12). This study will help relevant people and institutions, such as the Cambodian ministry of education, parents, administrations, teachers, students and other researchers to be aware of the factors influencing career choice so that they can refine recruitment policies, increase their actions and efforts, and enter preparation programs for teaching careers in the Cambodian context today and in the future.
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