Ongoing shortages of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers have prompted policy aimed at recruiting career change teachers as a solution. However, little is known about what deters career changers from becoming STEM teachers. This gap is explored through interviews with nine career changers who contemplated, but decided against a career change to STEM teaching. Inductive thematic analysis generated themes and subthemes which were then deductively categorised using Margaret Archer’s theories on emergent properties. Findings reveal that career changers are constrained from choosing STEM teaching when they perceive student behaviour as poor, the scope of teachers’ work as excessive, barriers to attaining a teaching qualification, or that the profession is not socially valued. Recommendations are presented to reduce barriers for potential STEM career change teachers.

科学、技术、工程和数学 （STEM） 教师的持续短缺促使制定旨在招聘职业转变教师作为解决方案的政策。然而，对于阻止转行者成为 STEM 教师的原因知之甚少。通过对 9 名转行者的采访探讨了这一差距，他们考虑转行但决定不转行从事 STEM 教学。归纳主题分析生成主题和子主题，然后使用玛格丽特·阿切尔 （Margaret Archer） 的涌现属性理论对它们进行演绎分类。研究结果显示，当转行者认为学生行为不佳、教师工作范围过大、无法获得教学资格或该职业不受社会重视时，他们就会受到限制，无法选择 STEM 教学。提出了一些建议，以减少潜在的 STEM 职业转变教师的障碍。