There is an ever-growing shortage of Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers in Finland and globally (Fenech et. Al., 2021; Larja & Peltonen, 2023). Teamwork is considered one of the most important elements of contemporary ECE professionalism in Finland (Karila & Kupila, 2023) and therefore a justified perspective to analyse commitment to ECE. This study scrutinizes the ways in which occupational relations influence ECE teachers’ commitment to the profession during the induction phase. Through micropolitical viewpoint, we examine how early career teachers’ experiences are linked to their commitment and recent reforms in Finnish ECE and European policy discourses (Kelchtermans, 2005). The battle of positions and responsibilities is part of the everyday politics, which affects individuals and their motivation to work (Valkonen et. al. 2024; Roen-Larsen 2023). 

Supporting teachers' professional identity and commitment during their education and first years of work is relevant not only from the beginning teacher’s point of view but also from a larger societal point of view (Council of the European Union, 2022). The increase in the intensity of work and the retirement of the baby-boom generation raises the need to explore different aspects of commitment to the profession using various methods and data. One of the most important quality factors in ECE is qualified teachers (Moss & Dahlberg, 2008) and therefore losing teachers is affecting especially children from vulnerable backgrounds. 

In Northern European countries, newly qualified teachers gain full responsibilities as teachers once they graduate from university. (Bjerkholt & Hedegaard, 2008; Kvam et. al., 2023). Teachers in ECE also work as part of teams. In Finland a  university-trained ECE teacher works alongside another teacher or social pedagogues and childcarers. This means that the teacher has pedagogical leadership responsibilities, that however, are not completely clear in the curriculum which should guide the professionals’ work (Fonsén et. al., 2023). This has posed some challenges on the induction phase and earlier studies have indicated that the small chances on progressing in working life, lack of support from the director and the difficulties in teamwork are some of the reasons beginning ECE teachers leave the profession (Kantonen et. al., 2020). 

Becoming a teacher in a community with a wide variety of backgrounds and power settings, as ECE centres in Finland can be perceived (Valkonen et. al., 2024), requires the novice teachers have had some support to navigate in the changing situations during initial teacher training. In addition, support during the first years in profession should be carefully planned (Council of the European Union, 2022). The operational culture has been shaped by a group of people and the new teacher can struggle finding their place in the organisation (Kvam et. al., 2023). Beginning teachers’ own ideals for teaching do not necessarily correspond to the working culture of the workplace (Kvam et. al 2023). If there are no official support systems available for induction teachers or they are not apparent at the microlevel, it can make it difficult for a beginning teacher to start their career and thus commit to the profession. 

This paper is based on interviews with 17 beginning ECE teachers. A pilot on student teachers working part-time while finishing their studies was started simultaneously with the data collection and it was decided that these student teachers would be included in our study. From the 17 participants six were students taking part in the pilot. The interviews were conducted as semi-structured individual interviews. A manuscript for interviews was planned based on previous research on beginning teachers, micropolitical theory and knowledge on the organisational culture in Finnish ECE settings. Interviews took place in Autumn of 2024 and thirteen interviews were conducted online on Zoom and four as live interviews. All interviews were recorded, and recordings were transcribed by the first writer. Transcriptions were analysed using discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is especially used to bring out different power relations in language (Fairclough, 2015). Whereas traditional discourse analysis concentrates on explaining the language in use, CDA aims to explain how language works in the way it does and produce something new (Fairclough, 2015)). Because the intention of this study is to make sense of the micropolitical realities experienced by beginning teachers, CDA is an appropriate method. Our intention is to bring out the power-relations in the Finnish ECE settings and to find out what kind of skills the ECE teachers have when entering the field. The transcriptions were first analysed using thematic analysis and making sense of what was said in the interviews. After the first phase, six categories (leadership/management, cooperation with other teachers, cooperation with other staff, support in the workplace, support during university studies and work experience) were taken into descriptive discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2015). Further analysis has led us to examine the paradoxalities of being part of a team and the paradoxalities of teacher training and working life. Through the analysis, utilizing the theory of micropolitics, we will bring out how the beginning teachers position themselves in the team and the induction phase.

Organizational structures and policy implementation need to be developed to help the beginning ECE teachers’ commitment to the profession and furthering teachers’ retention. This is pivotal in transformation and implementation of policy reforms. There is strong guidance from the EU level (Council of the European Union, 2022) and national level in Finland (Halttunen et. Al. 2024; Karila et. Al. 2021) to pay attention to the induction of ECE teachers. However, our preliminary results indicate that the micro- and macropolitics don’t always meet. Similar results have been reported from other European countries and studies among primary school teachers (see eg. Kvam et. al., 2023). Accordingly, the need of strong support of early career teachers is well-grounded in previous studies (e.g. Kvam et. al., 2023; Karila et al., 2017). However, the findings of this study show that support in the workplaces is based mainly on teachers’ own activity and team members can either advance or hinder early career teachers’ reinforcement of their professional role. In the discussion we argue the need to strengthen co-creative processes between different stakeholders.

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