Abstract:

The issue of employability of new teachers is of utmost importance for the development of their professional knowledge and identity. The difficulties faced by these young teachers at the beginning of the career influence their performance and lead to the rethinking of teaching conceptions.

Based upon this domain of thought we intend to develop in this paper focusing our research on the beginning of the teaching career of six young teachers who graduated with master’s degree awarded by the Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa.

The main goal of this study is to describe and understand the professional development of these teachers. For that we identify the most relevant dimensions, the factors that constrain and the contexts that limit or facilitate their development through the questions that guided its progression:
1) What is the motivation for choosing the teaching career?
2) What are the perspectives about the impact of graduating in their teaching performance?
3) What are the difficulties/challenges that new teachers face when entering the profession?
4) How does the feeling of belonging to the new professional group evolve?
5) What are the working contexts that limit or facilitate the professional induction?

The theoretical references are based on a literature review about the teacher’s development when entering the profession. A qualitative methodology was used throughout the study. Semi structured interviews were the main source of the data collection process. The data analysis was performed using the qualitative data analysis software NVIVO11. Data treatment followed the recommended framework for content analysis in a qualitative investigation in education.

The results allowed us to identify the constraints experienced by teachers at the beginning of their careers, and ways to overcome them.

Keywords:

Teacher training, professional development, novice teacher, professional induction.