"עזבו אתכם מאידאולוגיות, רק תנו לנו לחזור הביתה בשלום": מוטיבציות וציפיות באופק המקצועי של סטודנטים ושל בוגרי תכנית מצוינים במכללה

The enduring low image of the teaching profession in Israel strongly affects the quality of those who seek to join it. The goal of the program for excellence in teaching is the recruitment of high-quality candidates for teaching, employing a unique program that would train them to become the vanguard of the Israeli education system. The current study focuses on eleven students in this program and on ten graduates in their first two years of teaching. It utilizes in-depth interviews in order to examine their motivations for entering the teaching profession, their self-expectations, and the professional orientation of their future careers. The findings suggest that many chose the teaching profession as a result of altruistic (society-oriented) and intrinsic (teaching profession-oriented) motivations. Most of the participants stressed the positive effect of the program's high expectations on their own self-expectations, namely, to try and affect the education system from within. However, the graduates of the program indicated that their drive to affect the system somewhat declined during the induction phase, leaving them with a great deal of tension as well as numerous unsolved dilemmas. While most of the students expressed their commitment both to the education system and to the teaching profession and their wish to assume management roles in order to exert their influence on large circles of people, the graduates seemed to have lost the passion to lead. Instead, they displayed pragmatic and self-focused motivations such as personal and professional development and achieving fulfillment.