How to Answer, ‘Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher?’

An employer usually asks, “Why do you want to be a teacher?” for the following reasons:

• To find out whether you are committed to being an educator. Great teachers can have an immense impact on students and communities, but many educators lack the drive to teach well. This question gives an interviewer the opportunity to understand how you feel about your profession and evaluate your commitment.
• To discover if your values complement the organization. Each employer has unique positions, and an ideal candidate will have complementary values. With this question, the hiring manager can learn about whether or not your values align with those of the organization.
• To evaluate your communication skills. Being able to communicate effectively with students, school board members, and colleagues is a key skill for teaching professionals. An employer can use this question to find out your abilities in this area.

There are several things your should or should not do when answering this question, such as:

• Do communicate the personal reasons why you chose to become a teacher
• Do use concise, error-free language in your answer
• Do be honest about your decision to become a teacher
• Do try to communicate your passion for being an educator
• Do inform the hiring manager of any qualifications you have that suit the job description
• Don’t try to impress the interviewer
• Don’t distract the interviewer during your answer with conflicting body language, such as by tapping the table
• Don’t go off on a tangent and tell the interviewer about something unrelated to the question
• Don’t mention any controversial, private, or sensitive topics in your answer

You can use the following process to answer a question on why you want to become a teacher:

1. Analyze your commitment to teach. 

Before the interview, take the time to analyze your dedication to your job. While you’re likely to know why you want to teach, it’s important to be able to communicate this concisely to the hiring manager. Start by writing your rationale for choosing the teaching profession, and you can have one or several reasons to be a teacher.

2. Find out what the employer expects from a teacher.

It’s necessary to be strategic about answering this question because you should ideally show an employer that your reasons for teaching align with the position you’re applying to and corporate values. You can find out what the employer expects with the following steps:

• Analyze the job description
• Make a list of the key soft skills, hard skills, and educational qualifications required
• Use the internet, press releases, newspaper articles, and the job description to identify organizational values

3. Choose reasons that complement an employer’s values.

Use the reasons for being a teacher, which you identified, and your research findings about the employer to choose reasons that correspond to the direction of the hiring organization. Good examples of reasons for choosing to be a teacher include giving back to one’s community, trying to improve the education standard, making a real-world impact in the lives of children, and helping a less fortunate segment of children gain essential knowledge.

4. Showcase your qualifications that suit the job listing.

Use your answer to reinforce the message that you’re qualified for the job, which you should ideally communicate through your responses to all the interview questions. Based on your work experience in the teaching profession, choose a relevant anecdote or a metric that communicates an essential skill specified in the job listing. For example, if you have achieved a 23% increase in student scores in the last year, while working for your previous employer, due to your teaching methods and the job description requires a professional who can improve the teaching standard, make sure to mention this metric in your answer.

You can use the following examples to develop your own answer to the, “Why do you want to be a teacher?” question:

Example answer: Entry-level teacher

I have been a history fan since I was a kid, and getting my bachelor’s degree in this subject did not reduce my enthusiasm, so the main reason I teach is because I enjoy educating children about people, social features, and events that existed in the past through a method that aims to have a real-world significance.

I believe there are many important lessons we can learn from history, and I want to try to help children understand them, consider them during their daily activities, and avoid repeating them in the future.  Inspiring young people to develop the interest in acquiring knowledge that seems to be hidden in the past, which is what makes me passionate about history, is another major reason for wanting to be a teacher. 

Additionally, getting this job at Mountain View Middle School would be a dream come true because I grew up in this community, and I’m eager to contribute to it through teaching.  I also enjoy being a small part of the growing dynamism in the education industry. My internship as a teaching assistant gave me several great opportunities to implement my proposals for unconventional teaching methods due to the supportiveness of my supervisors. For example, I asked kids to develop realistic scenarios based on major changes to historical events. Then, I used the scenarios they developed to help them understand the lessons in the actual event.  The students enjoyed the project, and I found that they were more motivated during the project than usual and achieved higher scores in the test I gave them at the end of the program. Based on my research on the program outcomes, which is attached to my resume, I found that they performed better because they were more involved in the learning process. The opportunity to gain similar insights is another reason why I want to work in this profession.