Career Transitions in Teacher Education: A Multigroup Analysis of STEM and Non-STEM Graduates

Abstract In Germany, there is a shortage of teachers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) area which poses a serious problem to society and economy. This shortage is, among other factors, caused by the insufficient number of new students, the high number of university dropouts as well as unfavorable working conditions which lead to early career exits. While motives for study choice and study dropout have already been widely researched, we do not know much about teacher graduates who choose not to enter the profession upon completion of their studies. We believe that this decision and its underlying motives largely depend on the availability of attractive alternatives outside school, which are subject-related. In particular, we believe that the chances for finding an attractive, alternative occupation is much higher for STEM teacher graduates than for any other teacher graduates. Thus, in this study, we use multigroup structural equation modeling to identify predictors for turning away from the teaching profession, differentiating between STEM and non-STEM graduates. Our analysis includes motivation to choose teacher education studies, personality traits, interest, study-related factors, and various sociodemographic variables. While we find that initial motives for choosing teacher education studies were the strongest predictors of professional retention for non-STEM students, we were not able to identify specific patterns for STEM students. The results suggest that more research is required in order to be able to design appropriate interventions.