A recent survey illustrates an increased interest in careers in teaching among people in different professions. According to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 42 percent of college-educated 24 to 60 year-olds working in other fields said that they would consider teaching as a career.
This augmented interest in teaching could not have come at a better time. As the baby boom generation retires, schools will be hiring somewhere between 2.9 million and 5.1 million teachers, according to the estimates of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. This hiring boom is expected to last until the year 2020. Many students find the increased number in job openings appealing. "I would love to say that I want to teach out of pure altruism, but some of it is the employment opportunities," said Meg Ryan, A&S '09.
As the teaching workforce decreases by almost half, Tom Carroll, the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, encourages school districts to offer incentives to attract these career-changers. In an interview with The Christian Science Monitor, he suggested a pay structure that credits experience in other fields. The low salaries of teachers were a deterrent for 44 percent of the interviewees who did not consider a career in education. Nick Grasso, LSOE '09, expressed similar hesitations about entering the field. "You go to a great college and want to make a lot of money to get back what you paid for," Grasso said. "Ultimately, I decided that, because [teaching] is what I am good at, [teaching] is what I need to do. Happiness is more rewarding than a salary."
Like Grasso, the majority of interest in teaching is not because of compensation. Approximately 68 percent of potential teachers said that their motivation is to have a personally rewarding career. The second most common aspiration, at 54 percent, is "contributing to society and making a difference." "A lot of the motivation to change to teaching is because [people] feel that their jobs do not change the world, and they want to make an impact," said Maria Brisk, chairperson of teacher education in the Lynch School of Education.
The goal of contributing to society has also attracted potential teachers to urban school districts. Of the 42 percent of the interviewees with an interest in teaching, three out of 10 found working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds appealing. Brisk said that the LSOE also has a high percentage of students with that interest. Grasso, who is currently doing his teaching practicum with the Boston Public Schools, would like to continue working in an urban setting. His reasoning is simple: "I am well prepared, I can do it, and there is a need for me to do it. So, why not do it?"
The attraction to the profession of teaching, especially teaching in urban or impoverished settings, will help fill the jobs left vacant by retiring baby boomers.
Brisk maintains that it will have another important effect. "It is good that people have an interest [in teaching] because it will change the view of the value of teachers." She continued by saying that teachers form citizens, and therefore have a major impact on society.
If a large group of career-changers enters the teaching workforce, it will also affect the way a "good" teacher is defined. According to data provided by the U.S. Department of Education, approximately 20 percent of new teachers were certified through alternate routes. Brisk emphasized, however, the importance of a degree in education. "[Many people have] the idea that since [they] went to school [they] automatically know how to teach," she said. "You need to take seriously the education of children. You cannot just wing it."
Ryan, a history and English double major, worked at Learning Bridge summer school program inner-city students in Richmond, Va. She credits experience in the classroom as the most important requisite for teachers. "There needs to be a qualification process [for teachers] that is less reliant on tests and theory and more reliant on practical experience," Ryan said.
Grasso agrees with that requisite, but he argues that it is important to combine experience in the classroom with theories learned at a school of education. He criticizes "crash courses" on teaching for their rushed speed. "I do not know how much time it takes to be "well-prepared," but a summer is too fast. [Teacher preparation] needs to be reflective. The process should be that you learn something, you apply it in the classroom, and then you reflect upon it."
But, regardless of how they get there, people are entering the teaching workforce from a variety of different directions. For many BC students, that fact is comforting. "Part of my interest [in teaching] has stemmed from the fact that I do not know what is out there for my liberal arts degree," Ryan said.
As the work force ages, the profession of teaching will be altered by the entrance of teachers who come from very different backgrounds. For BC students, that means that, even without an education degree, there is a possibility of giving back to society through a career in teaching.
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