Longitudinal Investigation of Pre-service Science Teachers' Future Career Expectations during a Teacher Education Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the future career expectations of 86 Turkish pre-service science teachers at the beginning and graduation stages of a four-year teacher education program. The research design included both the longitudinal (within-subject) and between-subject differences by investigating whether future expectations changed over the four-year time period, and according to participants’ gender, and orientation toward the teaching profession. The explanatory-sequential mixed-method design was used in the study, where a panel study was employed in the initial quantitative data collection phase. The quantitative data were collected with the Future Expectations Scale, whereas the qualitative data were obtained through open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that the future career expectations of participants were generally positive. These expectations did not differ by participants’ gender and semester (freshman-senior) of the teacher education program; however, teaching career-oriented participants were found to have more positive future career expectations than their non-teaching career-oriented peers. The qualitative data indicated that the majority of the participants were willing to be immediately appointed as science teachers after graduation but many of them possessed pessimism due to their concerns about the Turkish teacher appointment system and stated that they unwillingly postponed the start of their teaching career. Based on the semi-structured interview data, some participants were found to hold fears about their future. The most common fears were classified as being afraid of experiencing disappointment, burnout, and failure of facing a generation gap after a certain time.