Students’ interest towards teaching profession and career in Malaysia and Oman: a comparative study

This research aims to investigate how university students in Malaysia and Oman perceive the teaching profession. It explores their interests in considering teaching as their career in the future. A quantitative approach was used with a sample of 463 participants from Oman and Malaysia to achieve these objectives. For the analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through structural equation model (SEM) was applied to create comparative models while examining the similarities and differences between the two countries' models. The models present the leading factors that significantly influenced students’ choices or decisions in pursuing a career in education or teaching. From the findings and models, according to Malaysian participants, teaching workload was found to be the leading factor and the main concern in the field of teaching, while personal growth was the leading factor and concern among Omani participants. Significant recommendations were provided, and this paper has contributed to the global research on the ongoing struggles of what teachers are facing in terms of workload, stress, and professional development, with some implications drawn for future research.