"Go or stay?" - Examination of Career Leaving among Vocational Teachers

The bringing back of the quality of education to the work of teachers has prompted a whole range of teacher research at international level. The OECD's international teacher researches sought to explore the possibilities of attracting and retaining teachers as well as the conditions for ensuring their professional development by interpreting the teaching profession as a complex vocation. (OECD, 2009) Some developed countries have to face significant teacher shortages. International reports identify teacher shortages as a serious problem with the expansion of education and the loss of career prestige (Mihály, 2002). Despite the fact that, unlike in many European countries, there is no shortage of teachers in the absolute sense in Hungary, the first signs of this are also visible also in our country (Ság-Ercsei, 2012a and 2012b). However, the problem of teacher shortages and career abandonment is mostly not a quantitative issue, but a structural one. It is therefore important to understand the characteristics of the career leavers and the reasons for leaving the field. In this study, we formulate the theoretical basics of our study done among vocational teachers.