International data shows that multiple regions are experiencing challenges in the teaching profession, with major teacher shortages, fewer people entering initial teacher education programs and early career teachers leaving the profession, to name a few (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2021; UNESCO, 2024). The global reports highlight the important link between induction, mentoring and professional development in supporting quality teaching. In response, this study aimed to explore key threshold concepts experienced by graduates in the first three years of their teaching career. Understanding these threshold concepts has the potential to inform and target programs to better support graduate teachers as they enter the profession. 

The theoretical framework for this study is threshold concept theory (Meyer and Land, 2003; Baillie, Bowden, & Meyer, 2013), which has been applied to various disciplines when identifying concepts underpinning key knowledge and practices. For example, to inform medical education (Neve et al., 2015), teaching of natural sciences (Solís-Pinilla & Merino-Rubilar, 2024), and strategies for overcoming threshold concepts in engineering (Male & Bennet, 2014).  Meyer and Land (2003) define threshold concepts as transformative,altering the way a subject is understood and perceived, which may also lead to transforming identity and other affective changes such as changing values and attitudes. They are probably irreversible, because there is an enduring conceptual change, which can explain why it can be difficult for experts to look ‘back across the thresholds’ when supporting novice teachers. They are integrative, as epistemic development, and building or reconstructing existing schema enable links between concepts that might have previously seemed unrelated. They are possibly bounded, with conceptual limits and specificity, where the boundaries of a discipline are marked and one knowledge domain is differentiated from another. They are potentially troublesome, because they are conceptually difficult, or counter-intuitive, or inherently complex, abstract or tacit knowledge that are difficult to articulate, requiring a change in thinking and/or feeling. The concept of liminality in the literature (derived from the Latin word ‘limen’ meaning ‘threshold’, ‘beginning’, ‘transitional state’ or ‘boundary’), is often associated with threshold concepts and provides a useful temporal metaphor for describing an important space where knowing and professional growth occurs (Kriewaldt et al., 2024).

Identification of threshold concepts provides a theoretical lens for examining the experiences of preservice teachers and graduate teachers, and for considering how support can be strengthened during the early stages of their careers. Threshold concepts could have utility in curriculum design and for addressing difficulties in overcoming particular thresholds (Male, S et al., 2018). How information is organised, sequenced, timed, scaffolded, and how much information is provided can enable or inhibit learning. There is potential for identifying gaps in learning, and for highlighting which concepts are most significant at specific points in their early teaching careers.

The key research question for this study is:

What threshold concepts emerge and influence early career teachers’ understanding and practice during their first three years of teaching?

The study utilised qualitative methodology to examine the experiences of Early Career Teachers (ECTs) in Australia and New Zealand. The study design intentionally elicits in-depth reflections through interviews to understand ECTs experiences as they commence teaching roles in diverse geographical and cultural contexts across Australia and New Zealand. This study included a longitudinal design, generating data from the same participants in the first three years after graduation. The participants included 6 Australian teachers and 22 New Zealand teachers who completed their teaching degrees in two different regions: Otago (South Island, n=15) and Waikato (North Island, n=7). The interviews with participants from Tasmania and Otago were conducted at three time points, once in Years 1, 2 and 3. The Waikato interviews were conducted biannually with each participant resulting in 6 data collection time points in the first three years. Therefore, Waikato interview 2 (in Year 1), interview 4 (in Year 2) and interview 6 ( in Year 3) were used for this analysis. This paper reports on a sub-set of a larger data set, drawing only on participants that completed interviews in all three years. The interviews addressed questions that are broadly categorised according to the following themes: Teacher background and current teaching context, experiences and challenges, teaching practice and development, professional standards, reflections and open-ended additional comments. Approximately one hour was allocated for the interviews, which were conducted via video-conferencing software. The analysis was conducted using an inductive investigative strategy through an institutionally endorsed Spark AI platform to detect patterns across each case in Years 1-3 for two data sets (Australia and Otago). This analysis was guided by the recent work of Neem et al. (2025) and Nguyen-Trung (2025) supporting the use of AI supported analysis. The codes were then manually analysed and applied to two of the data sets again in a deductive process. The data set from Otago was analysed using mixed deductive-inductive analytic process to verify the codes independently, ensuring that the human researcher retained interpretive authority and responsibility for analytic judgement. The final threshold concepts that emerged from this process were collaboratively analysed, using the patterns across data from Years 1-3 to identify any codes that could be subsumed by others and to determine those that were conceptually distinctive.

The analysis of 28 ECTs interviews across the first three years of teaching indicate that there are at least 10 potential threshold concepts listed below as themes. Each threshold concept was identified only when there was clear evidence in the data of progression from initial awareness or unawareness, towards a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the concept. Interview excerpts across Years 1-3 show how understanding linked to practice and changed over time. Developing as a teacher means: - realising professional capabilities (T1) - utilising relational teaching (T2) - recognising that teaching is shaped by school culture and systems (T3) - working flexibly within the realities of practice (T4) - conceiving classroom management as creating the conditions for learning (T5) - being responsive to learners’ needs (T6) - engaging collaboratively with colleagues (T7) - being reflexive (T8) - managing sustainable work practices (T9) - an ongoing commitment to evolving practice (T10) The threshold concepts were further categorised into meta-concepts: professional identity and growth; contexts and realities; pedagogical practice; and, relational practice. While these meta-concepts can be distinctly categorised, it was evident that they overlap and interact, emphasising an interconnected complexity inherent in ECTs experiences and professional growth in their first three years of teaching. The findings confirm Meyer and Land’s (2003) description of threshold concepts as a ‘portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something.’’ (p. 1). The analysis shows that distinct threshold concepts could influence significant epistemological shifts (‘knowing’ how to teach) and ontological shifts (‘being’ a teacher) in the first three years of teaching. This study highlights the potential for transformative threshold concepts to be identified for evolving teaching practice. Recognising and engaging with threshold concepts could have significant implications for initial teacher education, and guiding professional learning and mentoring for graduate teachers.

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