Ser profe: una decisión que transforma la manera de ser y sentir

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the factors and motivations in decision-making that lead to the choice of teaching as a profession and its relationship with the perception of happiness among teachers. From a qualitative approach, it investigates the motivations, experiences, and meanings that eight people attribute to the moment of deciding to become teachers, as well as their current experience in teaching practice. The study is developed within the Colombian educational context and is based on categories inherent to human development, socio-emotional education, and well-being. The results evidence that the choice of teaching is a non linear process imbued with emotionality and moments of crisis, where vocation emerges as a mechanism of affective resistance against environmental tensions. Furthermore, a marked paradox is revealed between the high satisfaction derived from the relational bond with students and the dissatisfaction with the exercise of the profession and financial compensation, concluding that teachers' happiness is not a static state, but a daily, dynamic, and relational construction that constantly dialogues with structural limitations.