Conference Agenda

International data shows that multiple regions are experiencing challenges in the teaching profession, with major teacher shortages, fewer people entering initial teacher education programs and early career teachers leaving the profession, to name a few (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2021; UNESCO, 2024). The global reports highlight the important link between induction, mentoring and professional development in supporting quality teaching. In response, this study aimed to explore key threshold concepts experienced by graduates in the first three years of their teaching career. Understanding these threshold concepts has the potential to inform and target programs to better support graduate teachers as they enter the profession.

The theoretical framework for this study is threshold concept theory (Meyer and Land, 2003; Baillie, Bowden, & Meyer, 2013), which has been applied to various disciplines when identifying concepts underpinning key knowledge and practices. For example, to inform medical education (Neve et al., 2015), teaching of natural sciences (Solís-Pinilla & Merino-Rubilar, 2024), and strategies for overcoming threshold concepts in engineering (Male & Bennet, 2014). Meyer and Land (2003) define threshold concepts as transformative,altering the way a subject is understood and perceived, which may also lead to transforming identity and other affective changes such as changing values and attitudes. They are probably irreversible, because there is an enduring conceptual change, which can explain why it can be difficult for experts to look ‘back across the thresholds’ when supporting novice teachers. They are integrative, as epistemic development, and building or reconstructing existing schema enable links between concepts that might have previously seemed unrelated. They are possibly bounded, with conceptual limits and specificity, where the boundaries of a discipline are marked and one knowledge domain is differentiated from another. They are potentially troublesome, because they are conceptually difficult, or counter-intuitive, or inherently complex, abstract or tacit knowledge that are difficult to articulate, requiring a change in thinking and/or feeling. The concept of liminality in the literature (derived from the Latin word ‘limen’ meaning ‘threshold’, ‘beginning’, ‘transitional state’ or ‘boundary’), is often associated with threshold concepts and provides a useful temporal metaphor for describing an important space where knowing and professional growth occurs (Kriewaldt et al., 2024).

Identification of threshold concepts provides a theoretical lens for examining the experiences of preservice teachers and graduate teachers, and for considering how support can be strengthened during the early stages of their careers. Threshold concepts could have utility in curriculum design and for addressing difficulties in overcoming particular thresholds (Male, S et al., 2018). How information is organised, sequenced, timed, scaffolded, and how much information is provided can enable or inhibit learning. There is potential for identifying gaps in learning, and for highlighting which concepts are most significant at specific points in their early teaching careers.

The key research question for this study is:

What threshold concepts emerge and influence early career teachers’ understanding and practice during their first three years of teaching?

This paper explores the knowledge practices of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) as they emerge in the transition from formal teacher education to professional practice in Danish primary schools. When student teachers move from one educational context to another, changes occur in how professional knowledge is expressed and transformed over time (Bernstein, 2000). These changes have implications for teachers’ professional development and pedagogical practices. This is important to consider as the first year in the profession has been shown to be crucial for the NQTs’ further development as professionals (Flores & Day, 2006).

This paper investigates changes in NQT’s conceptions and beliefs about the teaching profession. It provides a sociology of knowledge analysis of how NQTs understand teacher knowledge and the teaching profession and how these understandings are expressed and shaped during their first year as teachers.

The research questions guiding the study are: What specialized knowledge and qualities are valuable in the field of newly qualified teachers? How do specialized knowledge and qualities interact to shape a newly qualified teacher?

The aim is not to argue that one type of knowledge is more valuable than another. Instead the paper highlights the complex nature of enacting and developing professional knowledge during the transition from teacher education to working life, as well as the tensions and challenges involved.

There is no clear answer to what teacher knowledge is or of what constitutes teachers’ knowledge practices. Grimen (2008) describes the teachers knowledge base as consisting of multiple disciplines and experiences influenced by a wide range of actors. These actors may include a school’s organizational culture, leadership, mentoring arrangements, collegial communities, subjects and national policy (Bertram, 2023). Each of these may hold different understandings of what teacher knowledge is and what a professional teacher should know and be able to do (Cochran-Smith et al., 2012; Shay, 2013).

Within the sociology of education (Bernstein, 2000), knowledge is understood as something that is recontextualized within educational fields, where discourses and social practices shape what knowledge is, can be and ought to be. Through the processes of selecting, adapting and transforming knowledge, professional knowledge is constructed (Hordern, 2015). How knowledge is conceptualized in teachers’ work influences how they position themselves and develop as professionals (Afdal & Nerland, 2014).

To examine how professional knowledge develops as teachers move from education into employment the paper draws on Maton’s sociology of knowledge, which extends the perspectives of Bernstein and Bourdieu. Maton (2014)conceptualized educational fields as knowledge domains in which struggles over status and resources take places. Actors’ beliefs, dispositions, experiences and practices incorporate competing claims to legitimacy and convey messages about what should be regarded as dominant knowledge in the field. In this sense NQTs’ professional practices can be viewed as reflecting a set of messages about what counts as teacher knowledge within the field of newly qualified teachers.

Maton’s Legtimation Code Theory (LCT) offers a framework for analyzing how knowledge and ways of knowing are valued in different contexts by examining actors’ dispositions and the organizing principles for their practices (Maton & Chen, 2016). LCT’s concept of specialization codes is based on the idea that any knowledge practice is always oriented towards something and enacted by someone. Specialization codes can explain why some actors succeed in a field while others do not. Therefor they are useful for understanding how NQTs navigate the challenges of their first year in the profession, and for investigating the interplay between knowledge and the knower to identify which forms of professional knowledge are legitimized in NQTs’ narratives.

Competence requirements for early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers have increased worldwide, while at the same time, there is a shortage of qualified teachers (Department of Human Services [DHS], 2020; Lillvist et al., 2014; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2021). Studies have shown that highly educated ECEC teachers often experience conflicts between their working conditions and professional goals. This can lead to intentions to leave the profession, as teachers feel unable to meet job demands or fully use their competences with the available resources (Grant et al., 2019; Heilala et al., 2023; Schaak et al., 2020; Thorpe et al., 2020). The Nordic countries are facing a shortage of ECEC teachers, which statistics indicate will continue to grow in the coming years (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2024). In Finland, the Ministry of Education and Culture has taken various measures to address the ECEC teacher shortage, including increasing the number of educational placements for ECEC teachers (Karila et al., 2021). In this article, we approach this challenge of ECEC teacher retention by examining the occupational competence and occupational commitment of ECEC teachers who are in the induction phase of their careers. This study aims to answer the following research question: How do ECEC teachers in the induction phase of work associate occupational competence and occupational commitment?

In this article, occupational competence is approached from both the perspective of the individual and the requirements of the work and community. Within the field of ECEC, teachers’ competence includes both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for the work (see Nasiopoulou, 2020). Occupational competence requirements for ECEC teachers are shaped by societal factors, such as legislation and curricula. In this context, officially demanded competence refers to the formal expectations placed on ECEC teachers’ work (Ellström, 1997).

In this article, the term occupational commitment is used and examined at the individual level to refer to ECEC teachers’ commitment to their profession and their intentions to continue in the profession. Occupational commitment independently influences professional activity and work behavior (Meyer et al., 1993).

Findings from research in other academic disciplines suggest that competence can be meaningful to organizational commitment in various ways (Anwar & Aima, 2020; Riyanto et al., 2023). Organizational studies suggest that competence and commitment are closely intertwined throughout a career. Support for competence and opportunities for professional development have been found to be associated with commitment (Anwar & Aima, 2020; Riyanto et al., 2023). Studies have also shown that teachers see professional development and support at early career stages as promising tools for retaining teachers in the profession (See et al., 2020). In a study by Siri et al. (2020), higher competency ratings of professional teachers were reflected in higher levels of commitment.

However, higher competence does not appear to be unambiguously a factor that strengthens commitment. Studies of ECEC teachers also show that highly educated ECEC teachers recognize a conflict between working conditions and personal work goals. This, in turn, has increased the intention to change jobs or progress within the sector, as teachers feel unable to do the job according to their standards (Grant et al., 2019; Thorpe et al., 2020). It appears that the induction phase, or the beginning of a teacher’s career, is a particularly sensitive period for developing occupational competence, and decisions to leave the profession often occur during this early stage. For this study, the induction phase is defined as beginning with internships during ECEC teacher studies and lasting for about 3–5 years after transitioning into the work (Langdon et al., 2016; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2019; Schaack et al., 2020).

Teacher professional development is becoming increasingly important in a rapidly changing world with expanded work requirements (Malloch et al., 2013). For this reason, further and continuing education is becoming more important and seen as central for professional development (e.g. Reusser & Tremp, 2008). Professional development formats can be considered especially impactful when they are combined with the everyday work of teachers (Korthagen, 2017). Over the past two decades, an academic field, often referred to as workplace learning, has emerged (primarily) in the European context, which also applies to teacher education (e.g. Wang et al., 2024). Informal learning, described as integrated into daily work activities, not necessarily conscious, accidental and incidental (Manuti et al., 2015), plays an important role in this context. Fittingly, the workplace is considered an important place of learning for teachers. Corresponding research addresses the effectiveness of various learning activities in and, in particular, the self-direction of learning, the influence of the working environment and learning outcomes such as knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, intentions to act and changes in teaching methods (e.g. Bakkenes et al., 2010; Kyndt et al., 2016). In terms of learning activities, reflection is seen as a key component of professional development, particularly in (European) models for workplace learning (e.g., Kraus, 2014). Certain approaches to reflection are based on pragmatistic roots to reflection (e.g., Dewey, 1938). The context for the presented study is a continuing education programme that systematically combines formal and informal learning. It is based on educational evaluation approaches and on the model of visible teaching and learning (Hattie, 2023) and is related to action research approaches (e.g., Lesson Study). Participants of this format adopt a five-step procedure: (1) they choose a recurring and demanding challenge in their lessons, (2) set a goal, (3) develop an intervention and an instrument for data collection, and (5) they realise a project and make use of the results in the classroom and with colleagues. The roots of the programme lie in pedagogical evaluation theory (e.g., Scriven, 1966). It is also linked to the theory of visible learning and the evaluative teaching approach (Hattie, 2023). Previous evaluations of this programme have shown that teachers change their professional thinking and their actions (Schmid et al., 2025). The aim of the study is to explore the learning process. The aim of the study is to explore the individual learning processes of teachers who use the described procedure from the perspective of workplace learning and of pragmatistic reflection.