Over recent decades, the experiences of pre-service and novice teachers have been in the focus of educational research (Fantilli & McDougall, 2009; OECD, 2020). Teacher attrition is a global problem, but it is especially salient in the post-Soviet perspective where the teaching profession has undergone several crises. Once highly valued and socially prestigious, the profession encountered intense difficulties in the context of its dramatically deteriorating status after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While this problem has been recognized and well documented (Kutsyuruba, 2008; Silova, 2009), there is insufficient research regarding what beginning teachers in Kazakhstan experience when they enter schools and start their teaching careers.

Given the historical, political, and social context of the teaching profession in Kazakhstan, some of the professional aspirations and challenges might be common for both novice and experienced teachers. It is nevertheless likely that beginning teachers are in a more vulnerable position given the lack of professional experience compared to their older colleagues. For instance, a recent longitudinal study in the Finnish context found that half of the surveyed teachers had turnover intentions when they entered profession (Räsänen et al., 2019). What is striking is that while these intentions were strong, the reasons behind them differed remarkably, from lack of professional commitment to wider contextual aspects.

The first few months of working at school are particularly difficult for novice teachers.  The challenges they face can be categorised into three contexts: classroom, school, and community (Shamatov, 2013; Thiessen & Anderson, 1999). On the classroom level, these may include a lack of knowledge or experience in preparing and teaching lessons, motivating students, dealing with academically challenged students, or managing the class (Clark, 2012). On the school level, novice teachers may experience a lack of support from school administration or faculty (Brown & Wynn, 2009; Price, 2012), and are often assigned as much workload (if not more) as their experienced colleagues without sufficient time or guidance to adjust to their new role. Novice teachers are often discriminated against in the distribution of school resources and responsibilities and deprived of due respect. Similarly, novice teachers may suffer from low respect from their students’ parents; teacher-parent relationships are often a cause of distress for the novice teacher (Brock & Grady, 2001), which is aggravated by a lack of experience and institutional support, and the general perception of the teaching profession as a low-status job (OECD, 2019).

It has been suggested that the initial teacher education in Kazakhstan does not prepare teachers to deal with the above challenges (Irsaliyev et al., 2019). Although these may be remedied through mentorship or professional development (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015), currently there is no well-established system for monitoring and supporting professional needs of novice teachers, and mentorship is not yet an obligatory part of professional induction (Chernobay & Tashibayeva, 2020). TALIS-2018 showed that while mentorship is becoming more available for Kazakhstani teachers, its effectiveness is questioned. For instance, mentorship is not equally accessible to all novice teachers (OECD, 2019). According to a study conducted by Orleu (2021), mentors are likely to be perceived by novice teachers as models for imitation or sources of information rather than guides into the profession. Therefore, to ensure maximum retention of newly qualified teachers and promote quality learning, mentorship must become an integral part of teachers’ induction, and both novice teachers and their mentors must be offered professional development opportunities that would directly address their context-specific needs and challenges.

Thus, the aim of this study is to identify the main professional needs and challenges of Kazakhstani novice teachers and to suggest professional development programmes that may address them.

Driven with the pragmatic rationale to understand the needs and challenges of pre-service and novice teachers to develop the optimal professional development programmes, the study draws on the strength of mixed methods research that facilitates multiple ways of looking at the problem (Onwuegbuzie & Combs, 2010; Tashakkori, Johnson, & Teddlie, 2020). In this study, an exploratory sequential mixed method research design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011) was selected to broadly explore and understand novice teachers needs and challenges to tailor their professional development and means of support. This research was guided by the following questions: (1) What are novice teachers’ challenges on the level of class, school, and community?; (2) How can these challenges be addressed through mentorship and professional development?; and (3) What professional development is required for both novice and experienced teachers to mitigate novice teachers’ challenges and meet their professional needs? An exploratory design suggests working first with the qualitative data: the focus groups with pre-service and novice teachers as well as experienced mentoring teachers will be completed by March 2022. It is planned to approach about 10 focus groups with pre-service and novice teachers across the country to examine their first experiences of teaching in the classroom, dealing with non-classroom obligations, communicating with the wider school community, and shaping their professional identity. The transcribed focus groups will be analysed using NVivo software. The themes derived from the inductive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) will be used to develop a survey enabling to target a broader audience (Creswell & Plano Clark 2011; Tashakkori, Johnson, & Teddlie, 2020). The survey will operate the constructs that are similar to the qualitative instruments to ensure the complementarity of the methods. The quantitative data will be analysed with the SPSS software. The sample of the survey is expected to be over 1000 participants reached through convenience sampling (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011). One of the crucial stages of the mixed methods data analysis will be the integration of the qualitative and quantitative data at the interpretation level to present a holistic view of the research questions (Berman, 2017).

The initial analysis of data derived from the conducted focus groups revealed preliminary findings that can be categorised as needs and challenges that novice teachers face on the level of class, school, and community. It has been found that on the classroom level, novice teachers are challenged by the barriers of classroom communication, such as a lack of practical skills in resolving conflicts and dealing with students' low motivation. They feel there is a need in understanding child psychology so that they can teach their students more effectively and comprehend them better, especially within their inclusive classroom practice. On the school level, novice teachers noted a lack of support and extensive authority of their senior colleagues. They shared concerns about the conservative and authoritarian environment that remained from the Soviet system that creates obstacles for novice teachers to bring positive and sustainable changes into their schools. Young teachers’ low status in schools is another significant problem that challenges their self-perception of professionalism and self-efficacy. On the community level, there are problems associated with teacher-parent relationships and a lack of incentives. It is expected that mentorship and professional development can help novice teachers cope with these challenges. This study will be conducted further to determine what are the ways mentors can help new teachers to adapt to school climate and system. An expected outcome and implication of the study is to develop a mentorship or an in-service programme where methodological and professional expertise for both novice and experienced teachers will be provided to mitigate novice teachers’ challenges and cover their urgent professional needs.

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