The purposive sample consisted of individuals with a higher education in a field other than teaching and enrolled in a 1-year teacher education program at one of the largest Lithuanian universities. Inclusion criteria were: (1) enrollment in the teacher education program and (2) completion of an introductory reflection task. Participation in the study was based on these written reflections, after obtaining the students’ informed consent to have their texts analyzed for research purposes. Six students did not agree to participate. A total of 109 reflections were eligible for analysis. The remainder were coded with the letter ‘T’ and a number to maintain confidentiality.

The sample was not homogeneous in terms of gender, with 102 females and seven males. The sample was diverse in terms of age, with 42 (38%) individuals aged 23–30, 47 (43%) aged 31–40, 16 (15%) aged 41–50, and 4 (4%) aged 51 and above.

All the participants held bachelor’s degrees, some had master’s degrees, and several had a Ph.D. All of them had a non-teaching-related education. Their previous vocations covered more than 50 different fields, including accounting, finance, mathematics, programming, economics, chemical engineering, advertising, architecture, art studies, journalism, political science, philosophy, psychology, medicine, military science, sports, dance, and several other disciplines.

At the beginning of their studies (first month of the program), all participants were asked to complete a written reflective assignment, submitted online through the university’s learning platform. The prompt was: Please write a reflection on your career pathway and your motives for choosing teaching as a profession.’ No minimum requirement was imposed; however, students were advised to provide a thoughtful and detailed narrative. The resulting reflections ranged in length from approximately 730–2,400 words, providing rich material for qualitative analysis. Given the relatively large sample size for qualitative research, thematic saturation was not the primary principle guiding data collection; instead, all reflections were included to ensure comprehensive coverage of the sample. During the analytic process, we monitored the emergence of new themes and found that patterns recurred across participants, suggesting that the dataset was sufficiently rich for in-depth reflexive thematic analysis.

The completeness, depth, and diversity of the responses led the present researchers to assume that the CCTs had openly expressed their opinions and were based on their unique experiences, thereby generating a detailed picture of the development of their motivation for choosing a teaching career. The research participants wrote their answers in their mother tongue, Lithuanian. All selected quotes were translated from Lithuanian into English with the help of translators/interpreters. To ensure accuracy and preserve the meaning of participants’ expressions, translations were checked through peer review by a second researcher familiar with the study context. Discrepancies were discussed and resolved collaboratively. No formal back-translation was conducted, as the peer review process ensured conceptual equivalence and clarity for an international readership.

The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2021). The first author conducted the initial coding and developed candidate themes, engaging in ongoing reflexive reflection to consider how her position as a teacher educator shaped her interpretations. The analytic process was iterative: codes were generated inductively from the data, clustered into patterns of meaning, and gradually developed into themes through repeated reading, writing, and discussion. An audit trail was maintained through analytic memos and documented theme revisions, ensuring transparency in the decision-making process. Final themes were refined through reflexive dialogue among the researchers rather than through coder agreement. Table 1 presents themes, subthemes, and illustrative quotes to demonstrate the analytic process.

The initial themes and sub-themes were revised in accordance with the research question of why participants chose to change their occupations and become teachers at that time. The description of the analysis aims to convey to the reader the participant’s experience through direct quotations. During the mapping phase, the researchers discussed and selected a visual solution that would best reflect the participants’ motives.

Extrinsic motives originate from the environment, including changes in the labor market and career circumstances (Ryan and Deci, 2020). In this group of motives, the following themes were identified: “Investment for security” and “Current career circumstances” (Figure 1).

Intrinsic motives stem from a person’s values, characteristics, experiences, and expectations (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Within this group, the following themes were identified: “Prior T&L experiences,” “Pursuit of meaning,” and “Achieving self-realization and development” (Figure 2).

Altruistic motives are intrinsic motivations related to social value, which enhance the wellbeing of others and serve the greater good of society. In this group, the following themes were identified: “Being useful” and “Commitment to improving the world” (Figure 3).

The study examines career changers in a national context where the teaching profession has low prestige. We aimed to identify the motives that encourage individuals to change careers and transition into teaching in a context of low professional prestige. Our findings align with prior studies that show continuity between previous careers and teaching. In this Lithuanian context, the continuity appears more pronounced because many participants drew on domain expertise from arts and sports. We view this as a context-specific emphasis rather than a new category. As previous studies have shown, this motive is related to the question of teacher identity. The possibility of reconciling a new teaching career with a previous career strengthens CCTs confidence (Aslan and Eröz, 2025; Bar-Tal and Gilat, 2019; Dadvand et al., 2024; Hogg et al., 2023). The second alignment with previous CCT studies (e.g., Troesch and Bauer, 2020) was represented in the group of motives we categorized as “Commitment to improving the world.” These were ambitions inspired by the desire to contribute to the improvement of education while not being fearful of its shortcomings. In some studies of a country where the teaching profession has low prestige (Mičiulienė and Kovalčikienė, 2023), the idea of improving the education system has been linked to the altruistic values of teachers. In contrast, the present instance was more proactive, as it altered one’s career trajectory. The third finding was a new group of motives: “Current career circumstances” (i.e., “Demands to grow with the organization,” “Emigration,” and “Self-rescue from humiliation”), which seem to have arisen in an attempt to adapt to the complex conditions of a modern career (Savickas, 2020). A person chooses to become a teacher to grow with an organization and to preserve their and their children’s cultural identity in the context of migration. The preparation and attitude, abilities, and actions that are necessary to pursue the most suitable type of work and perform current and planned career development tasks highlighted the career adaptability and psychological resources for managing career change, new duties (tasks), and work traumas (Savickas, 2020; Del Corso, 2015) at critical points in their lives (Watters and Diezmann, 2015) that the CCTs possessed. This shows that external circumstances and stimuli become internal motivations, as noted in previous studies (Siostrom et al., 2023). This shows that external circumstances and stimuli become internal motivations, as noted in previous studies (Siostrom et al., 2023), that intrinsic, extrinsic, and altruistic motivations should not be viewed as entirely separate categories, but rather as intersecting and sometimes overlapping aspects. Indeed, several themes we identified, such as participants’ desire to “Give meaning to one’s career” (intrinsic) while seeking “Self-rescue from humiliation” (extrinsic), illustrate this variability. Similarly, altruistic motivations were often intertwined with intrinsic satisfaction, for example, when participants reported feeling personal satisfaction specifically from helping others (Hogg et al., 2023).

The motives behind the CCT’s decision to become a teacher reflected the influence of the social context and the participants’ internal needs. The findings of the present study confirmed some previous research (Watt and Richardson, 2012; Laming and Horne, 2013; Siostrom et al., 2023) regarding internal values, specifically the pursuit of self-realization and the desire to contribute to societal improvement. Moreover, the participants, when reflecting on their decision to choose a turn to teaching, revealed how they thought about their new profession. Some of them viewed it as an attractive career based on their memory of childhood games, while others knew that it would only become attractive when they had acquired some experience; this would not only change the way they assessed the barriers but also give them an insight into the extent to which those barriers had disappeared, or at least had diminished, had become surmountable, or perhaps had equipped them with the resources to complete their journey. The roots of their decision often lie in childhood, for example, in their positive experiences with games and learning. The metaphor of an inherited career (Inkson, 2004) revealed the sometimes-significant role of the family’s (acceptable, established) career model and financial and educational opportunities. This metaphor highlights the influence of social class and ethnicity on family or kinship values. Several generations of teachers in one’s family reinforced the decision to choose a teaching career, despite the public perception of the profession as unattractive. The intimate environment in which the personality grows and develops can have a great influence, along with a positive teaching role model.

The pursuit of career security and stability was a significant motivator for choosing a career in teaching. For example, the optimization of school networks and the need for continually updated qualification requirements for educational institution employees mean that, as in other sectors, it is not easy to remain a competitive specialist in one’s field and retain one’s job. Disregarding the prevailing opinion that the work of a teacher is difficult and poorly paid, the participants associated the job with stable income and social guarantees and identified the profession as one that will always be needed: “No matter what happens, people will not go without food, treatment, and education. Artificial intelligence cannot replace real, live contact” (T34). On the other hand, some of the participants were professionals (e.g., athletes and performers) who sought to acquire a teaching certificate because it would give them a chance to work in the same field after going beyond their professional career stage and using their previous professional expertise as transfer or adaptive expertise (den Hertog et al., 2023). However, none of the participants who discussed teaching as a guarantor of financial security referred to it as a “backup career,” namely, an option for those unable to pursue prestigious and financially rewarding occupations (Richardson et al., 2014; Imanuel-Noy and Schatz-Oppenheimer, 2023; Siostrom et al., 2023).

The motivation to choose teaching due to its potential for wide social impact confirmed Schein’s (1990) theory of career anchors, one of which is ‘service/dedication to a cause.’ As T37 noted, “Teaching is a meaningful and significant activity for me.” “I feel good at school; it’s nice to see students show an interest in chemistry and to hear that I helped them understand or learn.” The juxtaposition, even identification, of the meaning of life and usefulness to society revealed the values of those who had chosen teaching as a career and their profound and sincere sense of engagement (Wilkins and Comber, 2015).

The pursuit of meaning was linked to the metaphor of teaching as a “carrier of meaning,” as described in career construction theory (Savickas, 2020). It also indicated the participant’s level of motivation and dedication (Bauer et al., 2017). Prevailing idealistic motives for choosing a career—to be useful to society, to realize oneself, to create a better school for our children, to make the world a better place, and so on—appeared to suggest that the participants saw teaching as a vocation. It may, therefore, be assumed that those who saw meaning in their work shared a core of values (Stanišauskienė, 2022).

The motive of achieving self-realization and development was associated with a metaphor enunciated by Inkson (2004), whereby the correspondence of a person’s characteristics to a particular field of activity is described as “being in one’s sled,” “finding one’s place in life,” and so on. Moreover, this metaphor is related to professional inclinations, where a strong correlation exists between a person’s interests, abilities, and specific professional attributes. The participants regarded teaching as an opportunity to express their creativity and satisfy this need. It was noticeable that the sense of satisfaction provided by self-realization helped to break down the boundaries between work and leisure. Indeed, the former provided as much pleasure as leisure time: ‘In this job, I am able to fully reveal my creative side, my ability to organize various activities, to raise children. I felt that I could fully realize myself, and work itself became a kind of free time. After graduating in non-pedagogically based studies and realizing that pedagogy was, in fact, the field in which I wanted to work, I enrolled in a teaching course (T6).

Several career change motives can overlap because an individual may assume different roles throughout their life (Watters and Diezmann, 2015). The theory of career construction (Savickas, 2020) emphasizes the intertwining of social roles: for instance, the role of a citizen fosters the development of youth citizenship, along with respect for the homeland and its culture. As in previous studies (Wilkins and Comber, 2015), the role of the mother or father encouraged some of the participants to delve into the theories and practices of education, and this inevitably trapped them in the whirlwind of educational issues: “For years I had been dreaming of a different kind of school, and when life took such an interesting and unlikely turn so the possibility arose of establishing one, I didn’t hesitate for a moment…” And here I am. Discovering the way to a child’s heart, I try to accompany them on their educational journey. The pedagogical path is based on years of experience as a mother, observing children, understanding them, and achieving success in working with adolescents, as well as rebellion against the system (T64). Sometimes, this involvement exceeds the boundaries of the mother’s or father’s role and becomes the primary motivation for choosing a teaching career, i.e., its social utility value (Watt and Richardson, 2007). In every society where the teaching profession lacks prestige, those who have chosen a teaching career often encounter discouragement in the form of low status and a perception that their job is a form of backup occupation. A teacher’s social roles intertwine in a unique pattern of primary and secondary ones, which provide the energy to act, shape career-related decisions, and influence career trajectories (Siostrom et al., 2023). The motives for choosing a teaching career (e.g., the pursuit of meaning, professional and personal development, and personal growth) reveal the drive and inner potential of those who choose to make the leap, making it possible to predict the intense dynamics of their decision (Bar-Tal and Gilat, 2019; Varadharajan and Buchanan, 2021).

First, we noticed that the participants’ change of career was influenced not by one, but by several motives; therefore, the chosen method of thematic qualitative analysis was insufficient to categorize them and reveal the connections between these motives. The second limitation was the use of reflective writing alone to gather data. We recognize that relying on reflective writing rather than interviews may limit our ability to explore participants’ motivations in real time. As Grigorovicius (2025) notes, online reflective essays provide participants with an excellent opportunity to express their experiences in detail and at their own pace, allowing for introspective insights that may not be apparent during interviews. However, we recognize that the lack of direct follow-up questions may limit the ability to further clarify or explore emerging themes.

The third limitation was that the participants were just starting their careers. It may have been that they had an idealistic view of teaching and had yet to be encumbered by the realities of their chosen path. Moreover, when analyzing the motives for a teaching career, the differences in their teaching experience were not taken into consideration (e.g., in terms of duration; Varadharajan and Buchanan, 2021).

One more limitation worth mentioning stems from the predominance of female participants in our sample (102 out of 109), which reflects the existing link between school level and the feminization of the teaching profession, where women occupy many teaching positions, which is characteristic not only of Lithuania (Kaminskiene and Galkiene, 2024) but also internationally (Kammermeier et al., 2025). Therefore, future research is encouraged to investigate the motives of CCT for transitioning to teaching, considering that gender assignment and expectations may influence perceptions of the suitability of a profession based on gender.

The findings of the present study have several implications. First, in the world of education politics, systemic changes are needed to ensure the recognition of the factors that determine the motives of CCTs (e.g., self-realization, personal development, the pursuit of meaning, and a simple change in career). Previous work knowledge and capabilities should be recognized as transferable competencies (den Hertog et al., 2023) and serve as a basis for lowering the requirements for work experience during their studies. Secondly, the prestige of the teaching profession could be improved through the dissemination of public information, wherein respect for teachers, trust, and the uniqueness of the CCT experience is acknowledged. Although the participants did not refer to any difficulties in registering for pedagogy studies, it should nevertheless be the case that the administrators of teacher training programmes should pay heed to how applicants have arrived at their decision (Williams et al., 2016; Korhonen and Portaankorva-Koivisto, 2021), for instance, their work mindset, personal qualities, career experience, and their professional identity and status.

For career education specialists and career consultants, it would be beneficial to expose adults in various professional fields to the teaching profession as a potential second career choice, emphasizing the positive aspects of a teacher’s vocation, including the competencies and personality qualities required of a teacher. Higher education institutions should create a conducive environment for students who are inclined toward pedagogical activities and allow them to test themselves by working as a teaching assistant, in a club, or acting as a camp leader. Their attention should be drawn to teaching values and the personality traits associated with the profession, and they should be encouraged to self-assess their professional suitability. Career education specialists in schools should strengthen collaboration between teachers and parents at different educational levels, thereby dissuading them from discouraging their offspring from choosing a career in the sector. Meanwhile, the heads of educational institutions should be obligated to provide CCTs with working conditions that enable them to concentrate on building relationships with students, deepening their subject and pedagogical competencies, and presenting opportunities for creativity and self-expression without burdening them with excessive documentation management and similar tasks.

We concur with the notion that the global shortage of teachers renders the need for scientific research on CCTs particularly urgent (Yinon and Orland-Barak, 2017; Hogg et al., 2023), especially from the perspective of teaching quality (Frison et al., 2023). The data in the present study were collected from CCTs’ reflections, but future researchers might undertake in-depth interviews that might yield valuable information on motivating factors, including those that shape the career trajectories of CCTs currently working in schools. A greater understanding of career change can also be a means of encouraging career development and opening up new directions. The ways different motives interact should also be explored further, for instance, how they reinforce individual effects and encourage proactive behaviors when individuals are deciding on distinct career paths.

It is hoped that this study will contribute to an understanding of the factors that motivate individuals from outside the education sector to join the teaching profession in contexts where the teaching profession has low prestige. The qualitative research strategy employed here enabled us to identify a range of motives and connect these with individual life stories and diverse learning experiences. Motives often derive from two temporal phases of a person’s development: childhood and the present moment. In Lithuanian context the continuity appears more pronounced because many participants drew on domain expertise. We view this as a context specific emphasis. Some of the motives revealed herein confirmed those unearthed in previous studies. They include internal values, a striving for meaning, the pursuit of self-realization, and the desire to contribute to the improvement of society. The findings also highlighted the need to assess the individual’s career adaptability; for instance, do they possess the necessary psychological resources to cope with changes in career, new duties, unforeseen crises, and so on? Finally, the study has revealed the significance of shared accumulated experience, the desire held by many CCTs to improve education systems, grow together as part of organizations, and, more broadly, preserve one’s own and one’s children’s cultural identity in migration contexts.