Despite the significant role teachers play in education, teacher motivation has emerged as an object of research and discussion only over the past twenty five years. The studies in this area mainly focus on the factors that influence teachers’ decision to start or pursue the teaching profession (Malmberg, 2008), and the relationship between teacher motivation and the effectiveness of instruction (Hein et al., 2012) and student perceptions of the teaching process (Bernaus & Gardner, 2008). The research also suggests that teacher motivation affects student motivation, the success of educational reform and teachers’ well-being (Han, 2016). Unlike in many other countries in Europe and beyond, Poland has started to experience problems with the recruitment and retention of foreign language teachers in the profession only recently. Consequently, there is a shortage of studies that would investigate student teachers’ motivations and factors that influence their decisions to choose teaching as a career in this educational context. With this in mind, the present study intends to explore how the participants' motivation to work as language teachers evolved overtime: from the moment they selected a teaching course at university level, to the end of their stay abroad. The study aims to identify the factors that determine the participants' professional choices. Additionally, the perceived impact of the teaching assistantship abroad on the participants’ choices of career paths will be explored. 

This multiple case study involves the participants of the Comenius Assistantship programme, a European Commission initiative that enabled student teachers and novice teachers to spend from a few months to a whole academic year in a different European country, serving as teaching assistants in local schools. In order to join the programme, the future assistants underwent a selective recruitment process based on academic merit; therefore, the study offers insights into high-achieving graduates’ perceptions of entering the teaching profession. The data were collected by means of written retrospective narratives and in-depth semi-structured interviews with former Comenius Assistants of Polish origin. Both instruments prompted the participants to reflect on their motivational choices at different stages of their lives: before choosing the teaching course at university, while applying for the teaching abroad programme and after the completion of their stay abroad. This qualitative data was content analysed by means of NVivo software.

The results indicate that despite generally positive attitudes towards teaching, high appraisal of the teaching experience abroad and relatively high self-assessment of their own teaching skills, the majority of participants either chose a different career path or decided not to enter the teaching profession in their native country. The presentation will outline the reasons behind these career choices and will put forward a number of the implications for policy, teacher education programmes and quality improvement in school management that are of relevance to many educational contexts.

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