Title: Choosing teaching as a career in French-speaking Belgium: research at the dawn of a reform using the FIT-Choice scale

Authors: Joachim De Stercke; Antoine Derobertmasure; Emilie Bastin; Laëtitia Delbart

Addresses: University of Mons (UMONS), Place du Parc, 18 – 7000 Mons, Belgium ' University of Mons (UMONS), Place du Parc, 18 – 7000 Mons, Belgium ' University of Mons (UMONS), Place du Parc, 18 – 7000 Mons, Belgium ' University of Mons (UMONS), Place du Parc, 18 – 7000 Mons, Belgium

Abstract: The Wallonia-Brussels Federation is considered to be one of the least effective education systems according to international surveys. The results obtained from students in international surveys depend on the quality of teaching. This is affected by a number of factors, including teacher motivation and well-being. Empirical findings on future teachers' motivations to become teachers are still lacking in French-speaking Belgium. The aim of this article is to identify the initial career motivations of future teachers in French-speaking Belgium. To this end, a questionnaire based on an adaptation of Watt and Richardson's (2007) FIT-Choice scale was conducted among 1,318 students enrolled in the first year of a bachelor's degree in Hainaut province. Our analyses show that these students mainly invoke intrinsic and altruistic career motivations, confirming observations made using the same tool in other educational systems. They also show that a career choice motivated by altruistic motives and judged to be satisfying is associated with a higher level of satisfaction with life in general.

Keywords: initial training; teacher; career choice; motivation; satisfaction with life; FIT-Choice; Belgium.

DOI: 10.1504/IJQRE.2025.145766

International Journal of Quantitative Research in Education, 2025 Vol.6 No.1, pp.82 - 98

Accepted: 04 Jan 2024
Published online: 23 Apr 2025 *

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