Career-changers’ ideal teacher images and grounded classroom perspectives

• Career-changers grounded their ideal teacher images in the realities of teaching.
• Teaching was more time-consuming, demanding, and complex than they anticipated.
• Students' misbehavior and personal needs surprised and challenged them.
• Actual teaching added characteristics to their images of ideal teachers.
• Colleagues' behavior and attitudes in some schools were unexpected.

Seeking to understand whether career-changers experience the idealism referenced in new teacher literature, two teacher educators conducted a qualitative inquiry employing interview, descriptive writing, and focus group methods. Findings from 13 participants indicate their ideal teachers are caring and student-centered in a grounded, not romanticized, way, are knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and organized yet flexible. Participants found actual teaching more time-consuming, demanding, and complex than anticipated and students' unexpected needs and misbehavior challenging. Past teachers influenced their ideal teacher images and becoming a teacher expanded them. The researchers discuss the findings in light of literature and implications for future practice.