Early motivations for considering teaching

In the video, Sarah, Azumah and Ben explain what they did in the years before they made the decision to pursue teaching, and why they were initially drawn to teaching.

They also each reveal the single word or phrase that sums up the period when they were thinking about becoming a teacher.

Sarah Stewart

“I started my teaching career fresh after finishing a degree in English Literature. I worked with children and young people as a volunteer in my teens and through university, and these experiences taught me a lot about the lives that children lead and how their backgrounds can affect their educational opportunities. I have always felt a deep commitment to ensuring all children get the best chance at an education. Now, working on a teacher education programme gives me the opportunity to share that passion and commitment for learning with many other aspiring teachers – so that they, too, can go out and transform children’s lives.”

“Once I finished university, teaching was the obvious career choice for me, but it didn’t go the way I planned. I chanced upon adult education. I started slowly – a few hours here and there soon built up into a full-time job, followed by a career. I have never once looked back. There is nothing I like more than being part of the transformational change in people’s lives that education makes possible.”

“I worked in my holidays teaching watersports and gradually realised that I enjoyed helping young people and adults improve. I relished the challenge of working out how to present and explain information to different groups in varying ways. Now an important part of my teaching at The Open University is writing courses like this one with specific audiences in mind, and exploring how to teach new topics. For me, teaching in all its forms has an element of creativity, as you are trying to find innovative ways to capture people’s attention and encourage their interest in a topic.”

In the following step, you will hear from two new teachers who have recently changed careers to become teachers.