Struggling for a professional identity: Two newly qualified language teachers' identity narratives during the first years at work

Although teachers' first years in the profession are a widely studied field, the factors that would help to understand the difficulty or the ease with which individuals enter full time teaching and construct their professional identity are still little studied. This narrative study approaches the topic by comparing two newly qualified teachers' professional identity formation. The participants' stories display two different experience narratives: a painful and an easy beginning. The findings show the importance of the teachers' initial identities and the storytelling process to their professional identity formation. The study is part of a longitudinal research project in Finland.

► I studied two newly qualified teachers' identity development.
► The participants' initial identities affect how they experience the induction.
► The storytelling processes affect how the induction is experienced.
► Teachers' identity is central in understanding easy and painful beginnings.