Teaching isn’t just a 9-5, it’s a career that connects to each of our personal why’s.

We all come to this work with a deeper purpose -- a sense of intention and personal meaning. Often, this purpose is connected to our individual journey. Always, this purpose reflects what we hope to achieve with the students who we serve.

 
Layout of four whimsical illustrations of characters with four different titles and four different colors. On the left is a blue rectangular box with white type that says “Which purpose type resonates with you?”

Teacher purposes quiz

What’s your purpose?

Through our research, four core purposes have emerged. Of course, this doesn’t mean that everyone fits neatly into one purpose; we each reflect intersectional reasons for doing this work.

 

Teacher Purpose Profiles

Red illustration of woman smiling, giving a big hug to a bunch of hearts. There are so many hears and so much love that they are tumbling out of her embrace.
Green drawing of person with dreadlocks holding a poster with a peace sign, and a megaphone. They are smiling, and surrounded by energetic marks.
 
 
 
Yellow illustration of a smiling man wearing a sweater and pointing his finger upwards like he has an idea. Next to him floats a brilliant lightbulb, and he is being surrounded by a swirl of papers and floating abstracted words and mathematics.
Purple illustration of a woman with curly dark hair and glasses wearing a cape, a dress, and boots, with her arm outstretched over a shorter and smaller person who looks very similar. The two are surrounded by swirly whimsical lines.