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One aspirant who seemed focused on goals wrote, “recently I’ve reached all of my [simple] goals – get married, buy a house, start as family…one goal that has always been ongoing – to make a difference in someone’s life…maybe I can inspire teachers…”

Leadership, internal, and external motivation

Five aspirants mentioned leadership skills, as well both internal and external motivation in their journal entries about Why Me? Demographically they were evenly distributed across gender, race/ethnicity, and experience, although all of them taught in middle or high schools. They offered rich description as to their leadership skills, internal motivation, and external motivation. As one wrote,

Looking back it appears that I first realized that education was the root of societal progress as a Peace Corps volunteer... There it was too obvious that the lack of social mobility and economic progress all lead back, directly, to the lack of a solid educational system. When I returned from my service I knew that a career in education was what I needed to help my community stay on the road to progress. As a teacher I know that I transform lives, perceptions, and attitudes daily, and it is uniquely rewarding in its own regard. I truly feel that I have a passion for education and a deep-rooted concern that my students are cognizant that I care about more than just their education, but moreover, their well-being...I still know that in the future, if I truly want to effect the “system,” I will have to take a leadership role within that system, which is why I have committed myself to not only to pursuing this master’s degree, but also constantly look for opportunities that I can use to further my abilities in leadership roles. I would also be a bit dishonest not to admit that a leadership role has certain financial benefits to my future family. In being consistent in my philosophy on raising my own children in a productive, caring, and well nurtured environment, it might be necessary to be the sole bread-winner for my family.

Those who wrote about three factors influencing their decisions to pursue administrative credentialing – leadership, internal motivation, and external motivation – wrote about the importance of their decisions, the impact of their decisions for themselves, and the implications and responsibilities to serve others.

Discussion and conclusions

In this study I examined 83 written journal entries written by aspiring school leaders in response to the prompt Why Me? . What emerged from this study is a variety of motivating factors which were consistent with much of the previous literature on what motivates teachers to pursue school leadership positions (Adams&Hambright, 2004; Bass, 2006; Hancock, et al. 2006). It is interesting to note that just under half of the participants, 40 of 83, mentioned their leadership skills or experiences when writing about why they entered the administrative credential program in educational leadership. With all of the graduate programs available to teachers, one might be led to believe that teachers’ experiences or skills in leading others might somehow influence their decision to enroll in an educational leadership program. On the contrary, in this study less than half discussed leadership and only one in eight participants wrote about being drawn to the program based solely on their leadership skills and experiences.