Perceived social support and pre-service teachers' career calling: roles of vocational outcome expectations and professional identity

IntroductionAchieving sustainable development goal 4 in education hinges on teachers' sustainable career development, in which career calling serves as an endogenous driving force. This study investigated how perceived social support, vocational outcome expectations, professional identity and career calling were related among pre-service teachers.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,029 Chinese pre-service teachers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships among perceived social support, vocational outcome expectations, professional identity, and career calling.ResultsThe results revealed that perceived social support was significantly and positively related to vocational outcome expectations, professional identity and career calling. Furthermore, vocational outcome expectations and professional identity mediate the relationship between perceived social support and career calling both individually and in series.DiscussionOur findings highlight that social support constitutes a key factor in promoting career calling among pre-service teachers. Implications include the need to construct a multi-dimensional social support system to strengthen pre-service teachers' vocational outcome expectations and professional identity, thereby facilitating the development of their career calling.