Teacher shortages have become a persistent global challenge that threatens educational goals and has prompted countries to expand alternative entry routes into teaching, including career-change pathways (UNESCO, 2024). Across European education systems, recruiting teachers from other professional fields is increasingly discussed as a strategy to address shortages in hard-to-staff subjects and schools, particularly in STEM/STEAM (Grier & Johnston, 2012; Vaidya & Thompson, 2020). Research shows that career-change teachers, particularly in STEM subjects, bring strong subject expertise, diverse occupational biographies and a pronounced sense of purpose, while simultaneously facing accelerated entry routes, identity renegotiation and heightened transition strains (Dadvand et al., 2024; Watters & Diezmann, 2015).

Despite these insights, early-career professionalisation remains under-researched from the teachers’ perspective, particularly regarding how prior professional and life experiences shape entry into teaching. Building on approaches that conceptualise professional role understanding as a dynamic, biographically constructed process across past, present and anticipated futures (Goodson & Gill, 2011), this paper examines the early-career professionalisation of STEAM career-change teachers in Austria from an interpretivist–constructivist, actor-centred perspective, focusing on the mobilisation of biographical resources.

Situated within Austria’s intensified reliance on non-traditionally qualified teachers in lower secondary schools, the paper is embedded in a qualitative sub-study of the project "Professionalization in STEAM Career Change" (ProQ-STEAM). Early-career professionalisation is conceptualised as a process of biographical hybridisation under pressure, in which scientific, professional and pedagogical logics are reconfigured over time. The study addresses three questions concerning motivation and professional self-understanding, biographical resources and perceived competencies, as well as professional challenges related to workload, classroom management and assessment.

Methods

The analysis is based on 38 reflective portfolios written by STEAM-certified career-change teachers who teach at lower secondary level in Austria while completing a mandatory part-time higher education programme. Participants are in their first to fourth year of teaching, mostly in the first year, enabling a fine-grained view of the “survival phase”. The portfolios include biographical timelines and “time-travel” reflections, accounts of previous careers, descriptions of classroom practice and school roles, as well as reflections on strengths, tensions and development needs.

Data were analysed using an inductive, grounded-theory-oriented approach following the Gioia methodology (Gioia et al., 2013). First-order concepts were aggregated into second-order themes and aggregate dimensions forming a conceptual model of early professionalisation. Participation was voluntary, informed consent was obtained, and all data were anonymised in line with ethical guidelines.

Results and Discussion

Entering teaching is framed by all participants as a conscious and meaningful vocational decision, often described as a belated but fitting “arrival” after dissatisfaction or stagnation in previous careers such as screen-based knowledge work, research or industry. Teaching is not portrayed as a fallback option; rather, a strong sense of purpose, social contribution and relational work with students emerges as the main motivational driver.

Early professionalisation is marked by an intense survival phase. The double burden of near full-time teaching alongside the parallel programme causes sustained time pressure, leading to exhaustion and self-doubt that are nevertheless interpreted as formative learning experiences.

Three clusters of challenges recur across portfolios: establishing classroom management and authority in heterogeneous classes; dealing with assessment and grading as emotionally demanding work of doing “justice” to students; and navigating institutional and bureaucratic frictions, including contractual uncertainty and perceptions of career-change routes as “stopgap solutions”. To cope with these tensions, participants draw extensively on biographical resources from prior careers and life experiences. Backgrounds in engineering, industry, science, administration or clinical work support structured planning, time and project management, problem-solving and teamwork, while parenting, gender and diversity work, and intercultural experiences foster relational authority and empathy. At the same time, pedagogical growth, reflective capacity and biographical resilience often remain under-recognised in school cultures focused on formal qualification and visible performance.

Educational Significance

The study contributes to a differentiated understanding of STEAM career-change teachers as motivated professionals in transition rather than deficit-driven novices or ready-made experts. It highlights the need for professionalisation frameworks that recognise prior expertise as a central resource while addressing structural overload and abrupt entry into teaching with limited pedagogical knowledge. Sustainable workload models, structured induction and targeted support, particularly in classroom management, assessment and professional collaboration, are crucial to enable career-change teachers to consolidate their practice and actively shape their schools as hybrid professionals.

1. Introduction

Austria faces a significant teacher shortage, particularly in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) subjects (Schnider & Braunsteiner, 2024). This shortage stems from multiple factors, including increased teacher turnover and a retirement wave (BMBWF, 2024). To address this critical gap, two primary staffing strategies have been implemented. First, out-of-field (OOF) teaching has expanded considerably, with formally unqualified teachers now teaching STEAM subjects. Second, career changers, professionals with STEAM industry experience but lacking pedagogical training, have been recruited to supplement the teaching workforce (Schnider & Braunsteiner, 2024).

While these measures provide immediate staffing solutions, little is known about how these teachers construct their professional roles. The ProQ-STEAM project (2023-26) investigates multiple dimensions of OOF teaching and career-change into teaching. This particular study, situated within the broader project, examines the professional self-perceptions of OOF teachers and career changers in STEAM subjects.

Despite their prevalence in addressing teacher shortages, OOF teachers and career changers remain underexplored in qualitative research. Most studies adopt quantitative approaches without capturing lived experiences. Furthermore, policy discussions often do not address these groups distinctively. This study addresses these gaps by asking: How do career changers and out-of-field teachers perceive their professional roles in STEAM subjects?

Adopting a social constructionist perspective (Gergen, 2001), the study positions professional identity as dynamic and constructed through social interaction and personal meaning-making (Beijaard et al., 2004; Grier & Johnston, 2012; Pillen et al., 2013). This enables exploration of how the participants make sense of their professional roles when teaching STEAM subjects.

2. Methods

This qualitative study comprised two parallel interview studies with seven career changers and six OOF teachers in STEAM subjects. Data collection occurred over six months (June 2024-December 2024) and included two rounds of semi-structured interviews with each participant, classroom observations and field notes. Data were analysed using inductive reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2022) from a social constructionist perspective (Gergen, 2001). Interview transcripts were anonymised and transcribed using konch.ai, then uploaded to MaxQDA for analysis The Smart Coding tool helped with visualisation and data organisation. The codes were developed into themes and independently cross-checked with one external coder to ensure reliability.

3. Results

Thematic analysis revealed distinct self-perception’s between out-of-field teachers and career changers, suggesting that these two groups experience their professional roles in fundamentally different ways.

Out-of-field (OOF) teachers

Out-of-field teachers’ experiences clustered around three themes: (1) Passionate experts, (2) Teachers in need of colleague support, and (3) Teachers with insufficient professional development opportunities. Participants positioned themselves as passionate experts in some STEAM OOF subjects. However, this passion did not always translate into professional confidence. OOF teachers emphasised reliance on in-field colleagues for subject-specific, and pedagogical guidance. This pointed to a perceived gap between subject enthusiasm and teaching competence. The third theme reflected requests for more professional development opportunities for STEAM out-of-field teachers. This indicated their unique position and needs. These themes reveal contrasting role perceptions that often depended on STEAM subject assignments and personal identification.

Career Changers

Career changers constructed their professional roles differently. Rather than fully identifying as regular teachers, they perceived themselves through three lenses: (1) Atypical teachers, (2) overwhelmed professionals, and (3) student teachers. First, career changers only partially identified as teachers, highlighting their different career pathways and positioning themselves as partial outsiders. Career changers were often overwhelmed in the classroom: while perceiving themselves as subject-experts, they struggled with classroom management and insufficient pedagogical knowledge. Thus, experiencing a contrast between subject overqualification and feeling underprepared for classroom realities. The third theme suggests an ongoing sense of learning in the profession. Career changers assumed junior roles and viewed themselves as transitioning professionals. While OOF teachers sought targeted assistance within their professional network, career changers perceived themselves as transitioning professionals still negotiating their place in education.

4. Educational Significance of the research.

This research addresses a critical gap in OOF teaching literature by providing qualitative insights into teachers’ lived experiences, moving beyond statistics. By foregrounding individual perspectives, the findings reveal that OOF teachers and career changers assume different professional roles. This distinction has implications for differentiated professional development and support structures. The demand for responsive support systems shows that standardised solutions overlook the nuanced realities of diverse teaching contexts.

Introduction: In the Austrian system, second-career teachers (SCT) enter the profession directly and then complete in-service training. To learn more about the strengths and challenges of SCT and promote their professional success, we examine similarities and differences between first- and second-career teachers. Previous findings indicate higher personal resources, such as higher intrinsic motivation and higher self-efficacy of SCT; SCT also feel less challenged by professional demands concerning student learning and assessment (e.g., Troesch & Bauer, 2020; Weinmann-Lutz, 2006). However, these results are based on studies in countries where SCTs also receive full training. It is questionable how well these results can be transferred to the Austrian system, where SCTs enter the teaching profession directly. First results from Austria indicate that SCT report a very high workload at the beginning of their teaching careers, are yet nevertheless very satisfied (Weissenbacher et al., in press). This raises the question of whether this effect is comparable to first-career teachers (FCT). In this study, we address three questions: (1) Do second- and first-career teachers differ in prerequisites (demographics, personality, emotion regulation, health behaviors, and career choice motives)? (2) Do they differ in early professional outcomes (job satisfaction, burnout, and classroom management/ instructional clarity)? (3) Do any observed SCT–FCT differences remain after adjusting for age? Method: We compared FCT and SCT in terms of individual characteristics (Sample 1: N=787; pre-service teachers) and early teaching outcomes (Sample 2: N=646; in-service teachers). In Sample 1, FCT voluntarily completed the FEMOLA career choice motivation questionnaire (Pohlmann & Möller, 2010) before the entrance exam, whereas SCT completed it after the exam. Emotional and personality traits were assessed in both groups during the entrance exam (TESAT; Neubauer et al., 2017; TESAT-second-career; Weissenbacher et al., in press). In Sample 2, both groups reported first-year professional experiences (satisfaction, burnout, and classroom management) in an online follow-up. We first ran t-tests with Benjamini-Hochberg control and non-parametric analyses, and then re-estimated all group comparisons using linear regression models adjusting for age (continuous; with false discovery rate control; robust standard errors). Results and discussion: In each sample, about half chose teaching as a first career and half as a second career; SCT were older and included more men than FCT. After adjusting for age, SCT scored higher on emotion regulation, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, and lower on health/recreation behaviors, extraversion, and emotional stability. SCT also reported lower career choice motives across subdomains (subject-specific interests, pedagogical interests, utility, social influence). In the in-service sample, satisfaction did not differ between groups, whereas SCT reported clearly higher burnout. Classroom management showed a small, nominal SCT advantage on the didactics subscale before correction, but differences were not robust after false discovery rate control. Overall, adjusting for age did not account for the main SCT–FCT differences; the higher burnout among SCT persisted, while classroom management differences were modest. The distinct emotional and personality profile of SCT – higher emotion regulation and conscientiousness – suggests valuable competencies for the classroom, whereas lower intrinsic motives and higher burnout point to a need for targeted mentoring, structured didactics training, and resilience-building supports to sustain well-being and professional fulfillment. Educational Significance: This study offers actionable insights for teacher education, recruitment, and induction policy by disentangling how first- and second-career teachers differ in motivation, personality, and early teaching outcomes within the Austrian pathway that places SCT directly into classrooms. The finding that SCT exhibit stronger emotion regulation and conscientiousness, coupled with comparable satisfaction and slightly better classroom management, suggests they bring valuable competencies that can enhance classroom climate and instructional effectiveness. At the same time, their lower intrinsic subject-related motivation and slightly higher burnout risk highlight the need for tailored supports – such as targeted mentoring, structured didactics training, and resilience-building interventions – to sustain engagement and well-being. Ultimately, aligning entry routes, assessment, and support systems with these nuanced profiles can improve teacher retention, instructional quality, and student outcomes, informing evidence-based reform in alternative certification and in-service training models.