The development of a goal to become a teacher

The purpose of this project was to investigate how the goal of becoming a t eacher emerges. The study used interviews to develop goal histories for 8 p reservice teachers. There tended to be 4 sources of influence for their goa l to become a teacher: (a) family influences, (b) teacher influences, (c) p eer influences, and (d) teaching experiences. The categories developed from the interviews to describe the types of influences those sources provided were (a) suggesting that the person become a teacher, (b) encouraging the p erson to become a teacher, (c) modeling teaching behavior, (d) exposing the person to teaching experiences, and (e) discouraging the person from becom ing a teacher. In addition, influences such as critical incidents, emotions , and social-historical factors, such as the status and pay of teachers, we re prominent in the goal histories of the participants. Finally, the result s of the study are discussed within the context of goals and self-directed behavior.