Most induction programs and mentoring systems tend to position early career teachers from a remedial perspective. Based on qualitative case studies in Flanders (Belgium), using social network analysis, we want to question this taken-for-granted way of problematizing early career teachers and argue that the picture is much more complex and that some well-intended measures turn out to be ineffective or even counterproductive. Firstly, early career teachers not only draw on support available in their schools (such as mentor teachers), but also often themselves develop much wider relevant networks of people beyond the boundaries of the school. These wider networks provide support, both for the actual performance of their professional duties (technical, pedagogical, curricular) and the development of their sense of professional identity and self-esteem. Without denying the possible benefits of mentoring, the mentors were found to be not always at the center of this support network. Secondly, we argue that the remedial view on early career teachers ignores the enormous potential for innovation and school development that may become available for schools through the arrival of new staff members. Our research has shown that it might be relevant to not only perceive early career teachers as beginning professionals in need of support, but to also take into account heir professional situation and potential for the school. Thirdly, a proper understanding of teacher induction needs to acknowledge and incorporate that socialization is in fact a process in which early career teachers are not just passively positioned by the educational system (school organization) but at the same time can also proactively position themselves towards that system, importing a sense of professional expertise and self-esteem and eagerness to enrich their professional context. Summing up, we argue that a much more self-critical view is needed on the policies and practices of supporting early career teachers as well as on the theoretical conceptualization of what it means to be an early career teacher. This necessary shift in frame will contribute to teacher retention and in particular to avoiding teacher turnover as a counterproductive effect of induction support.

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