Table_1_Is Teaching Less Challenging for Career Switchers? First and Second Career Teachers’ Appraisal of Professional Challenges and Their Intention to Leave Teaching.docx

Teacher attrition is a major problem in many countries. One possible and widely spread counter measure is to recruit persons from other occupational fields to become teachers. Although the existent literature suggests that second career teachers (SCT) have additional resources compared to first career teachers (FCT), empirical data are still scarce on whether SCT are able to transfer prior skills and knowledge into teaching, how this affects the way they deal with professional demands, as well as their intentions to stay in their new profession. On this basis, the present study explores whether FCT and SCT differ in how challenged they feel by typical professional demands associated with teaching, and in what way their challenge appraisals are relevant for the intention to leave the profession. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a sample of 297 teachers, comprising 193 FCT and 104 SCT. Both groups had had regular teacher training, resulting in a full teacher diploma. Professional demands associated with student learning and assessment were rated as most challenging, whereas classroom management, establishing a professional role and cooperation with colleagues were perceived as less challenging. A group difference was found in professional demands concerning student learning and assessment, where SCT felt less challenged than FCT. Also, SCT were more intent to stay in the teaching profession. Further analyses showed that both group differences are mainly attributable to the higher proportion of male teachers among SCT, as well as to their higher general self-efficacy beliefs. Both career background and the degree to which the teachers felt challenged in their job played a subordinate role for the intention to leave the teaching profession. The findings indicate that SCTs’ background as career switchers might be less important for coping with specific professional demands than the existent research literature implies. On the other hand, they indicate that SCT feel nearly as challenged when starting to teach as traditional teachers, and may have the same needs for good teacher induction.

教师流失是诸多国家面临的共性难题。一项被广泛采用的可行应对策略，便是从其他职业领域吸纳人员转行任教。尽管已有研究表明，第二职业教师（Second Career Teachers, SCT）相较于首职业教师（First Career Teachers, FCT）拥有更多额外资源，但关于SCT能否将过往技能与知识迁移至教学工作、这一能力如何影响其应对职业需求的方式，以及他们留存新职业的意愿，相关实证数据仍较为匮乏。基于此，本研究旨在探讨：首职业教师与第二职业教师在感知教学典型职业挑战的程度上是否存在差异，以及他们的挑战评估与离职意愿之间存在何种关联。本研究通过问卷调查收集数据，有效样本涵盖297名教师，其中193名首职业教师、104名第二职业教师。两组教师均接受过正规教师培训并取得完整教师资格证书。研究结果显示，与学生学习及评价相关的职业挑战被评为最具挑战性的任务，而课堂管理、确立专业角色及与同事协作等则被感知为挑战性较低。在学生学习与评价相关的职业挑战维度上，两组教师存在显著差异：第二职业教师的感知挑战性低于首职业教师。此外，第二职业教师留存任教岗位的意愿更强。进一步分析表明，两组教师的差异主要源于两方面：一是第二职业教师群体中男性占比更高，二是他们的一般自我效能感水平更高。职业背景与教师的工作挑战感知程度，对其离职意愿的影响均处于次要地位。本研究结果显示，相较于既有研究的推论，第二职业教师的转行背景对其应对特定职业挑战的影响或许没那么显著。另一方面，结果也表明，第二职业教师在入职初期感受到的挑战程度与传统教师几乎无异，且二者同样需要完善的教师入职引导支持。