Somewhere, sometime in your past, you made a decision to become a scientist. You probably have qualifications that now seem unnecessary and even odd. It may be hard for you to recall what it was like making that decision: how you weighed the pros and cons of pursuing science as a career versus all other possible careers; how you reconciled yourself to the idea of spending your life doing something that you may not find very fulfilling; how you knew what you needed to do and what sacrifices were involved in being a scientist.
The good news is that, even though this decision was so important at the time, it doesn’t matter anymore. All the past has been erased by all the things that have happened since. Everything is on the table again: your choice of careers, how you spend your time, whom you spend it with, what you learn and where you learn it from.
Many scientists have ignored this fact; they want to teach but only about science. They think that their subject matter expertise gives them a unique understanding of teaching and learning and they are sure that it is science students who need extra help in learning how to become scientists. They have convinced themselves that their scientific research is innovative, or at least cutting edge, and so they spend their time doing work that is not appreciated by the public and probably will not be used by anyone except other scientists; keeping up with a vast body of literature written for an audience of specialists.
The good news is that nobody cares about any of this anymore. Now is the time to forget everything you’ve ever learned in science and remember what it was like making that decision: how you weighed the pros and cons; how you knew what you needed to do; what sacrifices were involved in being a scientist.
It is not easy to change careers, but it really isn’t as hard as you think because the most important decision has already been made for you: you are going to pursue this career, and that is a very good thing. The rest is just about how you go about doing it now; following your interest in teaching even though there is no research component is not a good idea because you are the only one who will be interested in your teaching. As Aeschylus put it, “In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”