Investigating factors influencing pre-service English teachers' decisions to become teachers

The study was designed with a mixed-method approach in order to examine the reasons and motivations of pre-service English language teachers for choosing a profession. Thus, it is aimed to provide more detailed information about the subject by using quantitative and qualitative data together. Quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire administered to pre-service English language teachers. Qualitative data were collected face-to-face through semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were obtained by using the "(FIT-Choice)" scale. The data collection procedure was carried out with a total of 198 volunteer pre-service teachers studying in the English Language Teaching program at Trakya University. In addition to the scale, a demographic information form, which includes data on the socio-economic background, family education status, gender, and grade level of the pre-service teachers, was also applied to examine the differentiation in the motivation of the pre-service teachers. Detailed data were obtained from the participants regarding their personal information and their motivation for choosing the teaching profession. In addition, qualitative data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with a total of 12 volunteer pre-service teachers, 3 from each grade level, and more detailed information was collected beyond the questionnaire. The quantitative data collected were analyzed using the SPSS 26 program, while the qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The findings were used to determine and categorize the data on pre-service teachers' professional motivation and to reveal which profiles predominantly prefer the teaching profession together with demographic characteristics. The relationship between demographic variables and motivation levels was tested with t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed that pre-service teachers generally have high motivation for the profession and the main factors affecting this motivation. In addition, no significant differences were found in motivation levels according to demographic variables except gender. Semi-structured interviews provided us with more detailed data on the factors we obtained through the questionnaire.