Towards a typology of sources of inspiration of student teachers

Abstract

A typology of student teachers’ sources of inspiration in the form of a two-tiered theoretical framework formed the foundation of a questionnaire administered to student teachers in three different countries. The results of this study show that inspiration amounts to a student teacher being driven, enthused, guided, motivated and self-directed by sources towards the attainment of a goal, in this case to become and remain a professional teacher. Although scholars have a good comprehension of what inspires teachers for their profession, there seems to be a facet of this phenomenon that is not yet fully fathomed. This is confirmed in this study, by the fact that the typology regarding teacher inspiration succeeded only in explaining 55.79% of the variance in the data pool.