Nowadays, in the field of Teacher Education, many countries are facing teacher shortages and the problem of recruiting the required number of qualified teachers (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2018). Teacher recruitment together with the ageing teacher population are reported by international literature as serious problems for many educational systems around the world (McInerney, Ganotice, King, Marsh, & Morin, 2015). To deal with this common scenario, countries are looking at developing alternative certification programs (ACPs) to access the teaching profession (Ruitenburg, & Tigchelaar, 2021). Those who seek an alternative fast-track program are often so-called Second-Career Teachers (SCTs): non-teaching professionals joining the classrooms after spending time in different career backgrounds (Castro & Bauml, 2009) and after working within a prior profession unrelated to education (Hunter-Johnson, 2015). Despite some research regarding SCTs, most international literature addresses first-career teachers; there is limited recent research on second-career teachers’ induction processes, professional development, perspectives related to their career transition, and the identification of factors for choosing teaching as a second career (Nielsen, 2016). Although the literature on First-Career Teachers, i.e. those who enter teaching as their first career, is particularly developed also in the pedagogical field (Balduzzi, Del Gobbo, & Perla, 2018), life, working conditions and motivations for choosing the profession are studied above all in the sociology of education and the economics of education without, however, specific references to teaching as a second career (Argentin, 2018; Cavalli & Argentin, 2010). Furthermore, these studies, where present, are limited to the countries that offer alternative pathways for SCTs (Skilbeck & Connell, 2004).

Therefore, the extent of the phenomenon is not clearly defined, neither in its quantitative scale (% of SCTs among the teaching population) nor in its qualitative one, particularly with reference to SCTs’ previous experiences, factors of choice of teaching and challenges related to the transition.

With the aim of exploring the phenomenon, the SecWell Project - Second Career Teachers Well-being: toward non-traditional professional development strategies was funded by the Seed Funding Call 3 launched by the EUniWell - European University of Well-being Universities Alliance, proposed by the University of Florence, Birmingham, and Cologne. SecWell intends to define the state of the art on the topic of lateral entry to the teaching profession focusing on frameworks and strategies of alternative pathways or fast-track programs but also pathways that could be defined as “non-traditional” (e.g. adult students that start or complete an Initial Teacher Education program later in their life and career after previous academic background and/or careers) with a specific focus on the partner countries (England, Germany, and Italy). Furthermore, SecWell intends to identify training and support needs of future SCTs.  The purpose is to guide the design of programs that can be offered by Higher Education institutions in the field of teaching and education focused on non-traditional learners studying teaching as a second career.

Specifically, the research questions were formulated as follows: To what extent did the phenomenon of SCT spread within the SecWell countries? What are the choice factors in selecting teaching as a second career?What strategies could support future SCT and in-service SCTs’ well-being (during the ITE phase as well as the induction phase)?

The research design started with a literature overview and a documental analysis based on regulations and reports referred to the partner countries as well as the reference to teaching careers in Europe concerning access, progression, and support (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2018) to define the state of the art of educational research on the topic of “lateral entry” to the teaching profession and reach a first definition of the phenomenon and related factors in choosing teaching as second career, and mapping of non-traditional pathways to the teaching profession with reference to the involved countries. A Qualitative Research Design was followed to explore the phenomenon starting from the identification of a convenience sample of non-traditional students who intend to approach teaching as a second career and currently working second career teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, addressed to non-traditional students (Italy), students involved in lateral entry programs (Germany and UK), and in-service second-career teachers, identified via a snowball sample technique. 28 students and 27 SCTs (England: Students=8, SCTs=6; Germany: Students=11, SCTs=10; Italy: Students=9, SCTs=11) were involved in the study. Semi-structured interviews explored: motivation toward the change of career and factors in choosing teaching as a second career; the transition phase and the support strategies during the Initial Teacher Education and the induction phases; the recognition of prior knowledge and skills acquired in the first career and identification of skill gaps; professional identity; wellbeing. The analysis of the 55 transcribed interviews is in progress, employing qualitative data analysis and the research software Atlas.ti. Texts were uploaded into the software as primary documents (PDocs) made up of 3 different Projects (England, Germany, Italy) and two Document Groups per project (Students and SCTs), a sort of container of PDocs, quotations, codes, and code groups. The coding process is in progress through the assignment of codes to the texts and, furthermore, through the aggregation in code groups. A final discussion table on gathered data will be arranged with a sample of students and SCTs belonging to the involved Universities to discuss the results and formulate recommendations and proposals to be addressed to the HEIs. The executive design of support strategies and actions focused on future second career teachers will followed.

From the analysis of English and Italian students and SCTs, already concluded, a lack of initial acknowledgement of transferable skill and knowledge in the teaching career emerged. The interviews also highlight that the motivation to become a teacher may have been present for some time, but crucial life events and opportunities enabled the transition to becoming SCTs. Both students and SCTs underline that support structures and strategies matter to SCTs particularly in the initial phase of training together with the guidance process at university and support strategies during the induction phase to manage the transition. The most represented code-groups referred to the SCTs background, mentioned by both students and SCTs (with reference to knowledge and skills acquired in the first career), motivation and choice factors. The paper will present the overview of the results focusing on the three Countries involved.

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