The 'FITChoice' project is our largescale longitudinal program of research which investigates motiva

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'FIT-Choice' Project Factors Influencing
Teaching Choice
Paul Richardson and Helen Watt
The 'FIT-Choice' project is our large-scale
longitudinal program of research which
investigates motivations for selecting teaching
as a career, teaching self-efficacy and
experiences of beginning teachers. Our research
addresses problems of recruitment and retention
in the current climate of teacher shortages. It
establishes profiles of motivations for career
choice at teaching degree entry, traces changes
in perceived competencies and professional
commitment from degree exit through to early
professional experiences, and identifies factors
and contextual processes conducive to or
inhibitory of retention. This agenda is
interdisciplinary, involves complementary
methods, multiple cohorts across two nations,
within a strong longitudinal design. The scale of
our project takes it beyond the provinces of
previous smaller-scale studies.
In many ways, Helen Watt's and Paul Richardsons
FIT-Choice collaboration represents the nexus of
their theoretical and methodological interests
and expertise, fuelled by the current crisis of
teacher recruitment and retention. The studys
scope means the findings will have a strong
policy impact. It is essential for the social
infrastructure of the country that State
Governments, employing authorities, teacher
educators, the Federal Government and recruitment
bodies better understanding the different
motivational profiles of those entering teacher
education now and why people are not retained in
the profession, suffer burnout or become
disgruntled less effective teachers. It is also
critical that we better understand the link
between motivations, self-efficacies and the
support networks and strategies needed to sustain
teachers in the profession, particularly in
difficult to staff regions, districts and schools.
The practical policy applications of the
FIT-Choice project are clear we are able to
recommend effective recruitment strategies to
attract people into the teaching profession,
based on those reasons identified with people who
have chosen teaching careers. We can also
identify changes in teachers beliefs about their
effectiveness on entry to the profession,
psychological and school-based processes which
lead to burnout, and those supports which assist
beginning teachers in their career development.
Such understandings will be of tremendous import
in developing structures which support and
scaffold teachers in their early years.
Richardson, P.W. Watt, H.M.G. (2005,
April). Switching Careers Factors influencing
career change into teaching in Australia. Paper
presented at the annual conference for the
Society for Research in Adult Development,
Atlanta, Georgia April 6-7, 2005. Watt,
H.M.G. Richardson, P.W. (2004, Dec).
Development and application of a new theoretical
framework to assess motivations for entering the
teaching profession across three universities.
AARE Annual Conference Papers Paper ID
WAT04301, Melbourne, 28 Nov - 2 Dec 2004. ISSN
13249339. Watt, H.M.G. Richardson, P.W.
(July, 2004). Self-concept of teaching ability
and values for teaching Definition, measurement
and relative influences on the choice of teaching
as a career. Paper presented at the 3rd
International Biennial SELF Research Conference,
Berlin, 4-7 July 2004. available online
Watt, H.M.G. Richardson, P.W. (2003,
September). Teaching as a gendered profession
The application of Expectancy-Value theory to
understanding gendered motivations for teaching
as a career choice. Paper presented at the EERA
Annual Conference, Hamburg, 17-20 September 2003.
Preliminary findings from our prior pilot data
are also reported at
http//www-so.adm.monash.edu.au/news/Story.asp?ID
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