'I can't imagine a better profession': factors influencing the decision to teach English

This chapter focuses on the factors influencing the decision to become a teacher of secondary school English. Survey- or questionnaire-based inquiries figure prominently, with many studies asking participants to rank a series of motivations from most to least important in their decision to teach. The international literature in the field has typically applied a taxonomy of ‘intrinsic, altruistic and extrinsic’ motivations to categorise and interpret individuals’ reported reasons for choosing to teach. The findings of studies with prospective teachers of English strongly align with the findings of studies with secondary teachers more generally in that the most highly ranked reasons for choosing to teach English are intrinsic and altruistic. Within these intrinsic and altruistic categories, however, the motivations of secondary English teachers tend to reveal a greater emphasis on an intrinsic attachment to the subject than is the case for teachers in other curriculum specialisations.