Abstract
The aim of the present study has been to determine how students come to decide upon a career in teaching. To this end data were gathered from 382 student-teachers entering either primary or secondary Diploma of Teaching programs at a Queensland College of Advanced Education concerning, amongst other things, their social origins, reasons for entering teaching, the time at which the career decision was made and the degree of familiarity with other students in teacher training. Principal components analysis has revealed a number of dimensions of career choice underlying these students' motivations to enter teaching. The influence of teachers, a desire for security and recognition, an interest in the profession itself and the choice of teaching for default type reasons have all been found to be part of the underlying structure of the students' career decisions. The use of stepwise multiple regression analysis has demonstrated that these dimensions of choice have been differentially explained by the students' earlier experiences and the influences to which they have been exposed. It is suggested that these results lend support to the notion that the decision to enter professional training is a complex phenomenon resulting from the interplay of the inner dispositions of individuals and the external influences which act upon them.