Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Based on three different student profiles (ephemeral aspirations, vocational aspirations, and second-career students), we investigate the motivational and perceptual factors that influence Chilean university students to choose a teaching program. METHOD. A qualitative analysis was conducted of 23 semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion. The data were analyzed under the theoretical perspective of career choice and motivations to become a teacher. RESULTS. The results show similarities in each of the stages of the career choice process, but also significant differences in terms of perceptions of the teaching profession and the motivational variables that lead students to choose a teaching career, in the case of students with vocational aspirations and second-career, or to opt for another career, as in the case of students with ephemeral aspirations. CONCLUSION. It highlights the influence of the educational centers in the choice to follow or not a pedagogical career to the influence that they exercise in this decision and in the perceptions of students, the opinions of family members, teachers and peers. Students show a predominance of altruistic and intrinsic motivations over extrinsic motivations.