Measuring Teacher Profession as Career of Choice Among Top Fully Residential School Students

Abstract

Fully residential schools (FRS) or boarding schools in Malaysia produce quality candidates with towering personalities. This study seeks to explore the choice of career as well as the parents and gender influences on the career as a teacher among top FRS students in Malaysia. A survey design, which is mainly quantitative in nature, was used in this empirical study. A self-designed questionnaire was used in collecting data from 305 participants from three top FRS in Malaysia. This study revealed that only 6.2% of students selected 'teacher' as a career of choice. Other respondents opted for different professions such as medical doctors, engineers, and scientists. Of the students who chose ‘teacher' as their career of choice, 31.6% have one or both parents from a teaching background. The study also found that the influence of gender on the career as a teacher was not significant with t (303) = 0.446, p = 0.656. Several recommendations were made. This study suggests further increasing the FRS students' exposure to the teaching career with the recommendations proposed