Abstract
Knowledge of occupational origins from which teachers are recruited may influence decision-making by recruitment officers. For administrators, it may provide guidelines to understanding teachers' perceptions of their role, of students and the school. The authors examined occupational origins of bonded students proceeding, in 1970 and 1971, to the University of Western Australia through Secondary Teachers' College. Data show that teaching attracts, especially, sons and daughters of teachers, along with those of a limited number of other workers also categorized by the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics as ‘professional, technical and related workers’. Teaching apparently fails to attract even moderate numbers from homes of other important professional workers, including medical and dental practitioners, lawyers, non-pharmaceutical chemists, physicists, geologists, biologists, veterinarians and agronomists.