Why do people choose to enter and exit the teaching profession? An interdisciplinary quantitative synthesis

Abstract Many nations experience recurring shortages of teachers in particular subjects, prompting concerns that pupils' education is suffering as a result. Researchers have responded by generating a sizable literature on the reasons for which people enter and exit the teaching profession. This paper provides a conceptual synthesis, distilling what we know into a single interdisciplinary model capturing influences on the decision (not) to teach. We then test and refine this model using a systematic review of survey experiments on job preferences among both teachers and potential teachers. Our final model shows good fit with the data, sheds light on the relative importance of different influences on job choice and can better inform the decisions of school leaders and policymakers looking to address teacher shortages.