Career Orientations of Pre-Service Teachers: Exploring the Influence of Different Types of Universities.

Background: More than half of future teachers in our country receive professional training in classical universities, which determines a great variability of motivational-professional and planned career trajectories. At the same time, the type of university (federal or regional) significantly influences the conditions for forming a professional teacher. This study identifies career orientations of students attending classical universities of different types in order to determine trends in career preferences according to choice of university type.

Objective: This study aims to identify the peculiarities of career orientations of students studying at pedagogical bachelor degree programs of classical universities of different types (federal and regional), determining the interrelations of their indicators with socio-demographic and motivational-professional characteristics of the test subjects.

Design: The study was conducted in the form of a comparison of career orientations of the first-year students in teacher education programs (83 students of Kazan Federal University and 89 students of Smolensk State University). The empirical methods used included the adapted Schein's career anchors tool and a questionnaire revealing socio-demographic and motivational-professional variables to identify factors related to career orientations.

Results: The obtained results revealed common preferences for both universities in career orientations on the service, job stability and lifestyle integration scales, indicating stable trends in choosing the teaching profession. Students at both universities, who chose the teaching profession and plan to work in their specialty, demonstrate a readiness for professional development and overcoming difficulties. However, the university is an independent factor which determines differences according to the scales of entrepreneurship, autonomy and management. Students at a federal university are characterized by greater independence and initiative, but also more uncertainty in choosing a profession, in contrast to students at a regional university.

Conclusion: Considering student career orientations according to their socio-demographic and motivational-professional characteristics, allows us to obtain an objective and comprehensive picture of the professional choices of students from different types of universities, leading to more effective delivery of their professional development.