As research in teacher professionalization increasingly shows that the attributes of students who decide to begin teacher training, like career choice motives, have an impact on their success within teacher training and beyond (Richardson & Watt, 2016; Rothland, 2014), the characteristics of future teachers have experienced a rush of additional research in recent years (Heinz, 2015; Watt, Richardson & Smith 2017; Rothland, 2014). However, most of these research activities have been limited to single countries and valuable transnational comparisons are lacking. Even in cases where an instrument like FIT-Choice (Watt & Richardson, 2007) is used in different countries, modifications of the scales used within the individual countries limit the comparability of the results. In addition, the comparability of the findings is especially questionable as, according to person-environment-fit models, there is a connection between the attributes of a person deciding to apply for a specific profession or training and the environment of that occupation. Especially when it comes to the teacher profession, many of these environment variables, such as salary, training requirements or range of professional tasks, are guided by national policies and state-bound regulations (Larcher & Oelkers, 2004, for an European overview see European Commission, 2019). Thus, comparative studies might help to enhance our understanding of interdependencies between the structural conditions and policies of a country (e.g. the structure of teacher trainings, working conditions) and the attributes of its future teachers.

Next to fundamental questions like the one to which extent international comparative studies have any learning outcome for the scientific community at all (Larcher & Oelkers, 2004), several methodological issues that complicate transnational comparative designs act as a barrier for transnational research: how is it possible to compare complex constructs like career choice motives between countries while at the same time ensuring the comparability of the compared constructs?

This symposium aims at discussing the potentials of transnational research in the area of teacher professionalization. Using person-environment-fit models as a framework, the first presentation focusses on the person side of the model by comparing the career choice motives of future early childhood teachers from four different European countries (Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Romania), each with its own set of national policies and working conditions. The second presentation analyses the environment side of the model in one of the countries mentioned above: Sweden. Finally, the third paper discusses methodological questions that arise when comparing personal attributes and institutional settings across different countries. The presentations approach the interdependencies between institutional settings and future teachers’ career choice motives as follows:

In the first presentation, interdependencies between structural conditions and policies of four European countries, in particular training systems, professional traditions and images as well as working conditions, and future early childhood educators studying for a tertiary qualification are illustrated.

The second paper explores the interceptions between the structural conditions and policy implementations in the context of Swedish teacher training. It interrogates the principles underlying the development of teaching professionalization in the context of the Swedish welfare state model and educational excellence. The transformation of professionalization is analysed as a function of a series of key national reforms that were inspired by a globalised ideology.

The third presentation addresses methodological questions of transnational comparability in quantitative settings: it discusses different issues that can occur when research tries to adopt an instrument from one national context to another. It also shows capabilities and limitations of measurement invariance analysis, a method that enables researchers to test the invariance of quantitative scales across different countries. Thus, the presentation demonstrates how this method might help ensuring the comparability and validity of quantitative results from different institutional or national settings.

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