Preservice teachers’ commitment to teaching and the likelihood of retention in the profession

Abstract

Teacher education for primary and lower secondary school has received harsh criticism in many countries, also in Denmark. Teacher education programmes experience high dropout rates and has low appeal to potential students. The purpose of this study is to explore how preservice teachers’ perceptions of campus experiences and field experiences are related to their prospective commitment to become a teacher as well as to their turnover intention. This focus is important because research indicates that prospective commitment to a profession is an important factor in sustaining good professional practices among preservice teachers as well as in preventing early exit from the programme. Structural equation modelling was used for the data analysis in this study. A survey was carried out with 1,435 participating Danish preservice teachers at four different campuses. The preservice teachers were asked to voluntarily complete a paper-based questionnaire after they had completed at least one teacher practice period. The analysis indicated that perceived relevance of subject didactics teaching and theory–practice interactions in the school-based section of teacher training are the most important elements in explaining both the prospective commitment of preservice teachers to their future profession as teachers and their turnover intention.