The demographics of teacher education students and beginning teachers continue to change with similar trends emerging across the globe.  In this symposium, we invite discussion and debate around the issues of this changing demographic and the associated enablers, barriers, challenges and issues in the transitions from students to teachers. Further, we aim to explore the development of professional identity from different lenses and through the experiences of teacher education students and beginning teachers in the different international contexts of Norway, the UK and Australia.

The professional identities of teachers are fluid in that they are constructed and reconstructed over the course of teaching careers. Professional identities emerge and develop during teacher education and in the transition to teaching and then continue to evolve over the career span (Day, 2007). Whether teachers are at the pre-service, beginning or experienced stages of their careers, they hold beliefs and values about students, the subjects they teach, and their roles and responsibilities as teachers. These beliefs and values contribute to their professional identities, and, in turn, influence their experiences of teacher education and their professional practice (Kelchtermans, 2009). Some factors impacting on a teacher’s professional identity pre-date teacher education (Zeichner & Gore, 1990). These include their own childhood experiences of teachers and schooling (Chong, Low, & Goh, 2011), family backgrounds and how they were parented as children (Knowles, 1992). Other experiences as adults, such as prior careers and parenting, also contribute to developing teacher identities.

Greater numbers of people are transitioning to teaching from other careers and with extensive previous workplace experiences (McKenzie, Rowley, Weldon, & Murphy, 2011).  Many of these ‘non-traditional’ entrants to teaching already have degrees outside the field of education and so enrol in one-year postgraduate teacher education programs, such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in the UK and the Graduate Diploma in Education in Australia, to gain a teaching qualification. These shorter duration teacher education programs are seen in some countries as a way of addressing teacher shortage. There is a perception that these compressed programs may have less upheaval on family life and financial sacrifice.  However, there is also a growing body of evidence to suggest that the challenges faced by students in these programs are intensified. Many of the students in these programs are parents also thus adding to the complexities of trying to balance family and university life. In the first paper of the symposium, Sarah Misra analyses the experiences of a group of PGCE student-parents over the course of their program and through their first year of teaching. While the second paper offers a different perspective with Lisa Murtagh reporting on her study of the attitudes of university tutors and school-based mentors towards a group of student-parents enrolled in preservice teacher education.

The first classroom experiences of teachers and teacher education students may be positive or negative but, either way, impact significantly on their ongoing professional development. These experiences may be perceived differently depending on the contexts in which they are experienced. The last two papers of the symposium delve into the experiences of developing teachers in different national contexts and at different stages of their careers. Denise Beutel examines the professional identities of a group of commencing Graduate Diploma in Education students in Australia through an exploration of their backgrounds, perceived strengths and perceptions of the qualities of a ‘good teacher’. While in the final paper of the symposium, Marit Ulvik presents the findings of her work that investigates how Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) in Norway and England experience their first year in teaching.

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