Teacher turnover has been recognized as a significant problem in the education system worldwide. Novice teachers oftentimes leave their profession in an early career stage only five years after starting employment (Kappler et al. 2016; Brlica 2018). Drop-out rates are not only high during the early career stage, but also during studying in higher education. At the same time, an acute teacher shortage makes it undescribingly difficult to lose teachers, neither during their time in higher education (Bergmann 2016; Güldener et al. 2020), nor by the means of early career dropout. Therefore, transitions into higher education and transitions into the profession must be managed well.

This widespread and international topic is addressed through the role transitions and occupational choicesof student teachers in early higher education in this presentation. It draws on narrative, empirical data from Austria, but places its findings in the context of international literature on this topic (e.g. Räsänen et al. 2020). The research question is: How do student teachers describe their role transitions into higher education (becoming a student; becoming a student teacher) and their occupational choices (becoming a teacher) in their early university careers?

The presentation draws on written accounts of student teachers in the form of their reflective diaries (Hyry-Beihammer et al. 2022). In total, 14 student teachers wrote a reflective diary for the study. For the presentation, a "typical narrative" of Victoria is selected to illustrate the difficult transition into higher education and her professional role.

This paper follows a qualitative approach using narratives of student teachers (Kelchtermans 2009) from reflective diaries (Kömür et al. 2015; Hyry-Beihammer et al. 2022), which they wrote on a weekly basis in their first 14 weeks of studying at university – hence in their first transition to becoming a student and student teacher. In biographical methods, reflective diaries are viewed as “a first person account of a (…) teaching experience, documented through regular, candid entries in personal diaries and then analyzed for recurring patterns or salient events” (Bailey 1990, 215). The presentation will show the complexity of transitioning to university and to the profession on the basis of Victoria’s case specifically – a teacher student typical for Austria: female, German-speaking, rural upbringing, middle class background, 18 years old, no working experience, no experiences abroad, and no pedagogical pre-experiences. Her reflective diaries show typical challenges in transitioning into university and shifting her role from being a pupil to being a student teacher and finally, becoming a teacher.

Victoria's reflective diaries give insight into her occupational choices (point in time and reasons for becoming a teacher) on the basis of her school-based experiences and teacher role models who left imprints on her occupational choices. Further, the phase of reorientation and transition into higher education follows. Lastly, she writes about her preconceptions of her future occupation as a teacher and her role transition from being a pupil to being a student teacher and becoming a teacher. Victoria’s narrative is contrasted with those of other student teachers’ reflective diaries, who have working experience or migrant background. This presentation is expected to illustrate various tensions related to becoming a student teacher. It contributes to raising awareness for student dropout from higher education and what higher education institutions can do to prevent dropout in the first place.

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