Why Some Teachers Choose to Become Professors Instead of Principals

Teachers who want to move beyond their own classroom usually picture one of two directions, either stepping into a principal's office or moving into a college classroom as a professor. Both routes ask for years of extra education and a real change in daily work, but they lead to jobs that barely resemble each other once you look past the shared word "education" in the job title.

The choice usually comes down to what a teacher wants more of, whether that's contact with students inside a single building or the chance to research, write and train future teachers on a wider scale. Understanding what each path actually requires, including the degrees, licensing and daily responsibilities involved, makes the decision far easier to picture clearly.

The Professor Path Usually Starts With a Doctorate, Not a License

Teaching at the college level, especially in a school of education that trains future teachers, generally requires a terminal degree rather than a state license. Most universities expect a doctorate before hiring someone into a full-time faculty role, and a growing number of working teachers complete a doctor of education degree online while continuing to teach in their own classroom during the day. The degree usually takes three to four years part-time and includes a dissertation or applied research project focused on a real problem in education, something a committee reviews before the degree is finalized. Once teachers finish the program, many move into adjunct or full-time faculty positions, teaching the next round of education students the methods they spent years refining in their own classroom.

Principals Follow an Entirely Different Kind of Credential

Becoming a principal runs through school administration rather than academic research. Most states require a master's degree in educational leadership or administration, along with a specific principal certification that usually involves supervised fieldwork inside an actual school building. That fieldwork often means shadowing a sitting principal for a semester or more, handling scheduling, discipline and budget decisions under supervision before taking on a building of one's own. Unlike the professor track, there's no dissertation involved, and the timeline from teacher to principal candidate can move faster, sometimes two years or less once someone has the right master's degree and district support behind them.

The Two Roles Reward Very Different Kinds of Work Day to Day

Running a school fills a principal's day with staff evaluations, parent meetings, safety drills and the many decisions that come with managing a building full of students and teachers. A professor's day looks almost nothing like that, built instead around lecture prep, grading, committee work and, depending on the university, ongoing research or writing obligations. Not every teacher who earns a doctorate ends up choosing the university route, and some deliberately remain focused on the classroom itself rather than moving into either administration or higher education. That third option matters because it shows the decision isn't strictly binary, even though most conversations about career advancement treat it that way.

Some Teachers Are Simply Drawn to the Academic Side of the Field

Beyond the differences in degrees and daily duties, the pull toward one path over the other often comes down to temperament and interest. Teachers who enjoy reading research, writing about their subject or mentoring student teachers during their practicum tend to gravitate toward the professor track, since that work looks a lot like an extension of what already interested them about teaching. Those who like solving logistical problems, managing people and shaping the culture of an entire building tend to find the principal's office a more natural fit. Neither preference says anything about which teacher was better in the classroom, since strong classroom teachers end up on both sides of this decision for reasons that have more to do with personality than performance.

The Time and Money Involved Look Different for Each Path

Cost and time commitment also factor into the decision, and they don't favor one path evenly across every situation. A principal certification program added onto an existing master's degree can sometimes finish within a year or two, while a doctorate generally takes three to five years even when a student is working through it part-time. Tuition varies widely by university, though online doctoral programs built for working teachers tend to spread the cost out over several years rather than requiring it all at once. The two credentials also get described differently within the field itself, since one is often treated as a research-intensive path toward faculty work, while the other leans more toward applied, hands-on leadership experience. Whichever direction a teacher chooses, the decision tends to reflect years of thinking about where they actually want to spend their working life, not which application felt easier to finish.