The benefits of supporting new teachers through an induction phase are documented in decades of research literature and policy documents. There is a broad consensus that a period of induction is a necessary bridge between Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and employment in schools. In most European education systems, early career teachers (ECTs) that are new to the profession have access to a structured induction that usually lasts one year and it is mandatory in almost all of them (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency., 2021). However, teacher recruitment and retention is a major concern for many education policy makers, to the extent of being labelled a ‘crisis’ and ‘policy problem’ (Mifsud, 2023), and the prevailing narrative is that supporting teachers during the early stages of their career is crucial not only to enhance the quality of teaching but also to reduce exit from the profession (European Commission, 2017) (Kelchtermans, 2019) (Flores, 2019) (Kutsyuruba et al., 2022).

The dynamic forming and shifting of a teacher’s professional identity - their pedagogy, positionality in relation to others, and broader or longer aims for education in their career - is also a topic that researchers are currently paying close attention to (Smetana & Kushki, 2023). Socialisation (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002) and teacher identification are known as key influencing factors in the early years of teaching and beyond. Hence, ideas about these are shaping induction programmes and research on induction.

Researchers have also found a policy shift towards a commitment of school heads (principals) to become more directly involved in driving teachers’ practices and teaching processes in some systems, but this is not consistent across and within these systems (Costa et al., 2019). Studies demonstrate the interplay between direct and indirect support from the school head and teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction (Thomas et al., 2019, 2020).

A new pan-European project is determining how to effectively build the capacity of education employers, including, crucially, school heads, in order to improve and develop induction programmes within the varying complexities of different education systems and their teacher education provision. In order to identify what capacity-building might entail, the project is exploring the role of education employers in different systems in depth, asking the question, How can employers foster a new teacher’s meaningful sense of ‘being’ through pedagogical practice and ‘belonging’ to the school and wider professional community? The project is also considering the implications of new teachers entering schools from diverse teacher education and professional experiences, including migrating from other countries, and how third-party support and partnerships might usefully support new teacher induction as part of a complex ecosystem of teacher professional learning and development.

This paper will present initial findings and further problematic questions from the project, specifically drawing from a pan-European survey and complemented by discussion points from a project peer learning workshop that brought together stakeholders from 11 countries. Given the focus on teacher growth and on school and wider professional communities, we take an ecological theoretical perspective in response to the research problem and questions.

The project survey is divided into two parts. PART ONE: An online questionnaire was launched in December 2023 – January 2024 for school heads and directors of multiple schools that employ and manage teachers across Europe in order to gather their recent experiences and opinions. It was open to those working at all levels of school education and Early Years (kindergarten). To improve access, it was translated into 25 languages. The online survey comprised 14 questions in total: 3 simple background questions to understand the context of the respondent and 11 questions about new teacher induction in their context. Most of the questions were multiple choice to ensure that the survey was easy to complete and aid analysis. Open text options were included for more personalised responses. Questions were grouped into 3 sections: - What currently exists in terms of induction programmes and individual approaches, and what the respondent would like to have or offer more of; - Their expectations and support to help new teachers to become active and integrated in the school community; - The capacity-building of staff to support new teachers in both their pedagogical practice and sense of belonging to a professional community. PART TWO: The second part of the survey comprises semi-structured interviews by a researcher with European school heads, teacher educators, local authority officers, and representatives from other teacher organisations. The interviews (June -July 2024) are intended as an exploratory approach rather than to test certain hypotheses, for the purpose of generating case study descriptions of experiences in the field. The interviews focus on the project questions of How can employers effectively support new staff with diverse needs and backgrounds, and how might partnerships, such as with Higher Education institutions and other organisations, be meaningful and sustainable in supporting new teacher induction? ANALYSIS: In Part One, 275 responses from 25 countries were gathered and a simple quantitative analysis was made of the responses. For Part Two, the interview transcripts were reviewed and coded, allowing themes to emerge based on key words and on the points of view being expressed in the narratives. We intend to draw on ecologies of practices (Kemmis et al 2012, Heikinnen 2020) as a theoretical frame of analysis, particularly regarding concepts of networks, community interdependence, and cycles of growth.

The findings will be fed into the project peer learning workshops as well as contribute to this research area, in particular the work of colleagues in the EERA Network Project: Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME). The expected outcomes will be to generate further evidence of the complexities and varying levels of induction support within and across European school education systems. The survey findings and subsequent project discussions will add evidence to how European school heads and other employers understand and play their role in school ‘human resource management’ and how they define their own needs in terms of professional learning and support. Valuable comparisons may be made between recent and forthcoming or planned teacher education reform in some European countries, such as attempted solutions to the recruitment crisis, and the practical realities as reported by school heads and other employers. Due to the anticipated variation in survey response rate in different countries, it may be difficult to compare systems or generalise responses to be representative of any system’s whole professional community. Nevertheless, it will be a timely set of findings, given the appetite of many systems to address recruitment, retention and regeneration of their teachers and school leaders.

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