Socio-educational characteristics and motivational factors of students in Pedagogy of Primary and Preschool Education – an exploratory profile

This study explores the profile of students within the Pedagogy of Primary and Preschool Education (PPPE) study program by analysing the characteristics of the socio-demographic and educational background, their motivations for choosing the specialization, self-appreciated qualities and skills, and their career intentions. The study is based on a mixed approach, a questionnaire being applied primary to a sample of 124 students, and also using a secondary data set of 215 students from another study. Among the most common reasons for choosing the specialization are the love or desire to work with children (over 60%) and the contribution to their education (25%). Students consider that they have various qualities and skills that recommend them to be a teacher for primary or preschool education, or to work with children, such as patience and calm/gentleness (>60, respectively 30% of cases), empathy (>35% of cases), creativity (>30% of cases), ability to communicate effectively with children, organization and planning, etc.. Career intentions indicate a majority orientation towards positions of educator (56%) or teacher (30.4%). About 60% of respondents are employed, some of whom are already working in the educational field.