ABSTRACT
‘Careers in teaching’ represents an attempt to apply certain conceptions of career to careers in teaching. Hughes’ conception of a career as a set of interrelated compartments and Roth’s time blocks for structuring of career maps are employed to obtain a description and explanation of how careers in teaching are shaped. The extent to which teachers deliberately construct career maps, set career goals, read the organization and play the ‘career game’ are examined in terms of data about teaching in British, US, and Third World countries. Certain myths and misconceptions arise from the matches and mismatches between bureaucratic career structuring and individuals’ attempts to make a career and find professional fulfillment. The concept of career proposed and the analysis offered permit proposals about how teaching as a career might be made more rewarding and in turn contribute to organizational effectiveness.
