Teacher (Role Variant)

Teacher is one of the 16 role variants the Keirsey Temperament Sorter is based on. David Keirsey originally described the Teacher role variant, however the personality theories of Carl Jung and Isabel Myers greatly contributed to its development. Teachers correlate with the ENFJ Myers-Briggs type.

Teachers are introspective, cooperative, directive, and expressive. Teachers look for the very best and they expect the best out of those around them. They are highly capable of educing a learner’s inner potentials. Teachers communicate to their pupils that each one of them has the potential to succeed and others are often motivated to live up to their positive expectations.

Teachers like to have things organized, settled and planned out. They will usually have their work hours and social engagements planned well in advance and can be trusted to honor their commitments. However Teachers are also capable of using their creativity to think up interesting learning activities for their pupils to engage in with little planning. Teachers are more educational leaders than they are social leaders, their primary interest being the growth and development of others.

Teachers have a highly developed intuition. They are highly skilled at understanding what is going inside themselves and what is going inside others. Teachers often find themselves taking up the beliefs, characteristics, and emotions of those they have contact with. This enables them to feel a close connection with others and they are often sincerely interested in the joys and problems of their companions.

Teachers consider people to be their highest priority and they often communicate personal concern and a willingness to help in their social exchanges. Teachers are warm, outgoing, and they value harmonious relations and interpersonal communication. Teachers are usually easy to get along with, tolerant of others, and popular. They may also be the most expressive of all the role variants. They have exceptional language skills and they won’t hesitate to let their feelings, beliefs and ideas be known. Teachers are very enthusiastic and they can become charismatic public speakers. Their exceptional language skills give them a great deal of influence in groups and they are often asked to assume a leadership role.

The following individuals are identified as Teachers:
 * Mikhael Gorbachev
 * Oprah Winfrey
 * Billy Graham
 * Ralph Nader
 * John Wooden
 * Martin Luther King Jr.
 * Margaret Mead