Who chooses primary teaching and why?

This study investigates who chooses primary teaching and how prospective primary school teachers differ from future teachers in other types of schools. Using variance analysis, future student-teachers of different types of schools are compared with regard to their motives for the choice of studies and profession. As a main result, prospective primary school teachers display a particular pedagogical motivational structure, idealism, and the wish for compatibility between family and professional life. In regard to their self-image, students of primary education have lower expectations of self-efficacy, but a higher awareness of responsibility. Conclusions as well as practical implications can be drawn for both the professionalisation of the teaching profession and teacher training, for example concerning the stabilisation or destabilisation of decisions on the choice of profession, realistic ideas about the professional field, and the strengthening of selfreflection.