Teaching as exploration? The difficult road out of the classroom

• Longitudinal study examining the exploratory context of teaching.
• Highlights the narratives of three teachers who chose to leave the classroom.
• Finds that attrition comes with high financial, professional, and personal costs.
• Former teachers also put pedagogical skills to use in novel contexts.
• Implications include need for early exploration of teaching.

This article examines the current notion of teaching as an exploratory career. Drawing upon longitudinal research in urban schools and using a theoretical framework grounded in teachers' lives and careers, this study captures the experiences of three former educators who chose to explore teaching and then leave. It highlights their backgrounds, entries into the classroom, experiences in schools, decisions to leave, and transitions out of teaching and into new fields. This research finds that the exploration of teaching comes with high financial, professional, and personal costs for the teachers themselves, along with the opportunity to contribute to society.