| PRESCHOOL TEACHER CAREER AND WHY INDIVIDUALS CHOOSE IT |
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Maja Hmelak, Jurka Lepicnik Vodopivec Abstract The first part of the article examines certain fundamental theoretical facts about preschool education courses and the preschool teacher profession, as well as current theoretical and empirical knowledge about the motives for choosing this career path. The central part of the article is devoted to the empirical study. A study was performed on a sample of 616 students and preschool teachers to determine their opinions about how suitable they think their choice of education and future profession was, and about the motivational factors that led the respondents to choose preschool education studies and the preschool teacher profession. The study also factored in respondents’ backgrounds (students, teachers) and status (beginners, established, experienced). An analysis of differences between the respondents in regard to their background and status revealed a general agreement with the suitability of choosing their education/future profession, but it also showed that their choice was primarily guided by self-actualization and altruistic reasons. However, statistically significant differences were spotted in other reasons as well. Considering that inner motivational factors were the most common among all respondents, the authors deduce that the respondents represent a suitably chosen and educated population of current and future preschool teachers, which should ensure quality work with preschool children. Key words: motives, preschool teacher, profession. Maja Hmelak is an assistant of preschool pedagogy; email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Jurka Lepicnik Vodopivec is an associate professor of preschool pedagogy; email address:
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