Abstract:

Supporting beginning teachers is more and more acknowledged as a key to successful educators and benefit for societies. Identifying challenges and addressing specific teacher needs is a vital element in order to support them in remaining in the teaching profession.

For this reason a questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 128 Romanian teachers, at different stages in their teaching career (beginning teachers, recently awarded definitive teaching certificate, teachers at different stages of their professional continuous development, teachers who also acted as school directors) to have a multi-approach spotlight on their experiences, challenges, needs and (at hand and possible) solutions at their early teaching career stage till the moment of fully awarded teacher status. A diagnosis of specific documents in the field was also carried out.

The present research revealed that beginnig teachers have a generally two-fold experience: some concerns and challenges are common irrespective of their moment of ”debut”, other concerns are related to the new developments in technology and approach to education. There were also different perceptions regarding the forms of support they benefited from and what they would recommend for smooth professional integration and final retention in the teaching profession and education system.

The conclusions underline that investing in programms to support beginning teachers is important for the teachers to be successful and for the society to enjoy quality education.

Keywords:

Beginning teachers, experiences, challenges, forms of support.