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Abstract
Each year, more individuals transition into education from other careers, bringing industry experience and advanced degrees to help students to develop job-ready skills. While these individuals often possess subject-matter expertise, they must still earn a teaching certificate, commonly through alternative certification programs. These programs, accredited by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, were developed to address teacher shortages and provide career and technical education (CTE) teachers with an expedited pathway to licensure. Ideally, such programs equip future educators with skills in lesson planning, assessment, classroom management, and differentiated instruction, as well as prepare them to help students become workforce ready.This study explored the perceptions of career switchers who became licensed CTE teachers through alternative certification programs. Specifically, it examined their views on preparedness in classroom management, instruction, content knowledge transfer, and overall quality of their training.
A basic qualitative research design was used, with data gathered through semi-structured interviews. Questions were developed to address participants’ perceptions of their readiness to manage classrooms, deliver instructions and effectively apply their professional knowledge to teaching. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data, and the study was grounded in Piaget’s theory of cognitive constructivism and Shulman’s theory of pedagogical content knowledge.
Findings revealed that while alternative certification programs provided valuable support networks and helped participants learn to write and implement lesson plans, many felt underprepared in classroom management and in translating specialized content knowledge into student-friendly instruction. These skills were often developed only through on-the-job experience prior to or during their teaching careers.
The results suggest that while alternative certification programs offer foundational training, they may not fully prepare career switchers for the realities of classroom teaching, particularly in behavior management and instructional adaptation. They study recommends that future program designs include more practical, hands-on learning experiences tailored to diverse content areas to better meet the needs of incoming CTE educators.