Research on beginning teachers has mainly focused on the problems they encounter. Fuller and Brown presented in 1975 a model with different phases of professional development. One of the first phases was called survival. Watzke (2007) has criticised this stage theory, and claims that beginning teachers do have concerns for students as learners and that they are capable of complex and student-oriented thinking. However, it is internationally well recognized that novice teachers need some kind of support during their first year (Teachers Matter, 2005). Lot of research points at problems of new teachers, e.g. discipline problems, too many activities and difficulties in linking the lessons and information to the pupils background knowledge. 30 – 50 % of teachers leave the profession during their first 3-5 years (Achinstein, 2006). This can be explained by lack of induction programmes for novice teachers, and that new teachers often experience heavy workloads and poor working conditions (ibid). There can be many reasons why teachers leave teaching, but the factor with the strongest impact on retention seems to be the quality of the first teaching experiences (Rots, Aeterman, Vlerick, Vermeulen, 2007). In order to offer novice teachers a better start, may be the question should be asked differently? Instead of identifying problems, one could ask how successful new teachers manage their job and how they can be used as resources in their workplaces. This study is a follow up study presented at the ECER-conference in Gent 2007 (Smith, Ulvik & Helleve, 2007): “Novice in Secondary School. The coin has to sides”. The aim of the study was to gain deeper insight into novice teachers’ diverse experiences during their first year in the profession, to explore how novices manage their jobs and what kind of support they need. The current study examines how beginning teachers in upper secondary schools in Norway become resources in schools, and to which extent the schools use these competencies. The aim of the study is to learn more about new teachers’ strong sides, and how they can contribute to the schools.

The data collection method was an open ended questionnaire distributed in a seminar to participants of a network for new teachers and their mentors. We got response from 21 newly qualified teachers out of 26 and 5 mentors out of 8 from upper secondary school. The individual answers were discussed in groups, and each group summed up their discussion in writing. These summaries are also part of the data. The questionnaire was followed up by interviews with 2 teachers. The two researchers categorized the answers. The presented categories and illustrating quotes were chosen through moderation.

The current paper is still in progress. A preliminary result is that both novice teachers and mentors find it easy to list areas where experienced teachers can learn from novices. New teachers have up to date knowledge, want to learn, are flexible and committed and see things from a new angle. Areas where new teachers found themselves especially competent were communication with young people and ICT-knowledge. There are also several stories telling about how new teachers are not used as the resource they could have been. One reason for that is the heavy workload they are given.