This study explored the teaching motivations of 306 B.Ed. first-year teacher trainees who chose teaching as their career. Analysing data of Likert questionnaires showed that altruistic factors were rated as more important than extrinsic and intrinsic factors regardless of gender. Interestingly, MANOVA results indicated that females were more extrinsically motivated to be a classroom teacher than males. The teacher trainees' responses to open-ended questions showed that their socio-economic background and cultural and religious beliefs were other factors that motivated them to choose the teaching profession. According to ANOVA results, there were significant differences in teaching motivations between teacher trainees who had the intention to work as a teacher before attending the teaching institution and those who did not. Significant differences were also found in teacher trainees' teaching motivations between and among the three groups in terms of their satisfaction with career choice. However, there were no significant differences in teacher trainees' teaching motivations in terms of their residency.