All around the globe, there is a massive shortage of teachers, and teacher shortages is a growing problem (Andersen et al., 2021; UNESCO, 2016; OECD, 2018); Boström et al., 2021; See et al., 2020; Burke & Ceo-DiFrancesco, 2021; Seelinger & Lindqvist, 2023). By 2030, it has been estimated that there will be is almost 69 million teacher vacancies worldwide (UNESCO, 2016) with hard-to staff areas being particularly vulnerable to difficulties in attracting teachers (See et al., 2020). As ratified by UNESCO and the United Nations, ‘Education is a basic human right that works to raise men and women out of poverty, level inequalities and ensure sustainable development’ (UNESCO, 2023). Since teachers are the single most important factor for pupils’ learning (Nordenbo et al., 2008; Hattie, 2009), they play important roles in ensuring this basic human right globally. Around the world, teacher shortages have often been characterized as a ‘crisis’  (See & Gorard, 2020, p. 436) and a ‘perfect storm’ of an increased demand for teachers (DeFeo & Tran, 2016, p. 1), intensified by falling enrolment in teacher education programmes (DeFeo & Tran, 2016; See & Gorard, 2020) and teachers leaving the profession prematurely (See & Gorard, 2020).

In Denmark, teacher shortages are often described as a dual problem of recruitment and retention (KL, 2016), at the same time the number of teachers who leave the profession increase (Nordic Council of Ministers, 2010).  While political (DLF, 2018) and professional (Nordenbo et al., 2008; Harrie 2008) stakeholders seemingly agree that teacher shortages have damaging effects on children’s schooling, the problem of teacher shortages in Danish schools does not seem to be a general lack of trained teachers. A total of 17,000 qualified teachers in Denmark do not work in schools (DLF, 2018), with one-third of newly qualified teachers leaving their jobs in schools during the first year and four out of ten resigning during the first five years (AE, 2022; DLF, 2018). On reason for these problems in attracting and holding on to teachers is teachers’ perceptions of the job as demanding, unrewarding and lonely (Dahl et al., 2022). Problems of teacher retention have often been attributed to inadequate teacher education (Rasmussen & Bayer, 2014), insufficient links between theory and practice (Nygren, 2004), and lack of opportunities for professional development in schools (Schön, 1987); these explanations however have little relevance for understanding teachers’ motivations and how they make sense of and understand themselves within the teaching profession (Dahl & Andersen, 2024; Dahl et al., 2022). Shifting the focus to teacher identity and professionalism (Wenger, 1998; Korthagen, 2004) may better explain how an increasingly challenging working environment in schools result in a disconnect between professional ideals and everyday realities, threatening teachers’ professional identity (Korthagen, 2004; Dahl, 2020; Beijaard et al., 2004). As such, when teachers leave teaching jobs in schools, they often do not experience it as a choice but rather a necessity, feeling they cannot be the kind of teacher they would like to be (Pedersen et al., 2016). This poses questions regarding teachers’ self-understanding and sense-making (Weick, 2004; Wenger, 1998), as well as motivational issues (Korthagen, 2004) related to the professional task and employment as teachers in school environments. To this end, the study asks: Why do Danish schoolteachers leave the profession? And how might the problem of teacher shortages be addressed and understood in a wider context?

Teacher shortages are xplored by looking at the divergences and interplay between contextual meaning-making (Weick, 2004) and professional senses of professional belonging (Wenger, 1991) in relation to teachers’ trajectories of professionalization (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Korthagen, 2004) in intricate organizational structures (Bourdieu, 1986).

Four focused group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with 3-8 student teachers and teachers to identify teachers with different sense-making (Weick, 1995), feelings of belonging (Wenger, 1998) and professional identities (Korthagen, 2004; Wenger, 1998) within the teaching profession and work communities (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Informants were located at schools in different parts of Denmark: in two provincial settings (northern and eastern Jutland) and in the capital of Denmark (Copenhagen), including both private and municipal primary and lower secondary schools. Individual, semi-structured, qualitative interviews were then conducted with the selected teachers and student teachers, in all, 15 interviews which lasted between 39 minutes and 2 hours and 31 minutes. All interviews were transcribed and coded for content using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. Informants were asked about their expectations for the teaching job; their experiences, feelings and thoughts during their first years as teachers; socio-cultural challenges inspired concepts of fields and distinctions (Bourdieu, 1986, 1977) regarding teaching; how they navigated collaboration with colleagues and other stakeholders, drawing on Lave and Wenger (1991); and their sense-making and motivation, drawing on Weick (1995) and Wenger (1998) in organizational structures. As shown by previous research (Marin-Blanco et al., 2023), international studies of teacher shortages tend to result in generalizations that ignore the local characteristics of teacher shortages in specific settings. To explore the effects of local conditions, and in addition to the above interviews, three teachers with different work trajectories, school contexts and personal aspirations and motives were located and interviewed 2 times each: the purpose was to inform the analysis with more detailed explanations of why teachers leave respectively stay in the profession, and how teachers’ professional trajectories were entangled with the school as an organization and with teachers’ personal and professional lives. An integrated theory-complex focusing on situated learning (Wenger, 1998) in organizational structures (Weick, 1995) and incorporating Bourdieusian concepts (1977) enabled the analysis of the empirical material from different perspectives, focusing on teachers’ sense-making (Weick, 1995) in intricate organizational structures and sociocultural fields (Bourdieu, 1977; Wenger, 1998) and among other teachers (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Teachers’ sense of belonging and participation in teacher communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and the translation of social, cultural and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986) into status, prestige and belonging in the teaching profession made it possible to understand how teachers made sense of their working life and how they navigated the conflictual fields of schools.

Analysis of the empirical material indicated that the teachers found the teaching job complex and contradictory – especially novice teachers (Dahl et al., 2022). When entering the profession, teachers felt overwhelmed by the complex array of novel tasks, many of which they had not been prepared for during teacher training. Not only did they have to deal with the challenges of classroom teaching, but also the inclusion of pupils with learning difficulties and mental problems, who are often included in mainstream schools (Ministry of Education, 2014); schools with different organizational cultures and managerial styles (Dahl et al., 2022); cooperating with and including parents in communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in which teachers often become illegitimate, peripheral participants (Dahl, 2017), introducing teachers to contexts of power and unequally distributed capital and forms of dominance. This left the teachers in situations of cross-pressure (Bateson et al, 1965), where the complexity of a profession that demands systematics, empathy, endurance, and the ability to relate and being authentic (Korthagen, 2004; Dahl, 2022) stands in stark contrast to political ambitions and policies in an everyday school practice characterized by restricted time and financial resources in addition to top management and in which the teachers felt that no matter ‘what a person does, he can’t win’ (Bateson et al., 1956, p. 253). Being caught in a psychological double-bind (Bateson et al., 1956) between personal ambitions of ‘doing good’ (Pedersen et al., 2016; Korthagen, 2004) and the time-consuming and emotionally exhausting organization of schools (Weick, 1995) dismantled the teachers’ meaning-making and feelings of belonging (Wenger, 1998) to the teaching profession, creating a kind of professional schizophrenia. Analysis of three selected teachers illustrated the connection between teachers’ personal meaning-making, situational contexts and professional trajectories, resulting in them leaving, staying or moving within the profession.

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