ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the kind of internal/interior inspiration, concerns, attitudes, and issues in becoming a full- or part-time educator in a college or university. In higher education, teaching is one of three key areas of work expected of professors, the other two areas being research/creative work and service. Contemporary approaches to understanding people’s motivations for becoming teachers examine other influences on people’s reasons for choosing education as a vocation. In higher education as a vocation or “life purpose,” focused studies about why people choose to become professors are practically nonexistent. Remember, too, that being a teacher in higher education includes being a researcher in one’s field of specialty and someone giving service to the institution, discipline, and community. Making the switch to higher education, especially full time, involves “a calling-infused career change”. A teacher-scholar in higher education is a life-long learner, as is evidenced by the active integration of research/creative work and service with teaching.
