The early years of teaching constitute a critical period during which professional identity, instructional competence, and long-term career trajectories are shaped. Entry into the profession, however, is frequently experienced as a demanding and emotionally taxing transition for beginning teachers (UNESCO, 2024), commonly defined as those with fewer than five years of teaching experience. Early-career teachers (ECTs) often confront a complex set of professional expectations that extend well beyond those encountered during pre-service preparation. These include managing diverse classrooms, responding to accountability pressures, engaging with parents and communities, and navigating school cultures that may offer limited structured support. As a result, many ECTs enter the profession feeling insufficiently prepared for the realities of contemporary schooling and the opportunities for Professional growth.  There is evidence that ECTs’ Professional Development has a strong alignment with teaching commitment (Nakata et al., 2026), and ECTs’ retention (Mason & Poyatos, 2015).

Evidence from Australia and across Europe suggests that this vulnerability is systemic rather than context-specific. In countries such as England, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, ECTs report high workloads, role ambiguity, and uneven access to induction and mentoring support. Despite variations in teacher education systems and policy frameworks, international research consistently identifies the early-career phase as a period of heightened risk of stress, burnout, and attrition. First-year teaching experiences are particularly influential, as they shape teachers’ instructional practices, professional confidence, and attitudes towards the profession in enduring ways. Negative early experiences can lead to disengagement and early exit, while supportive conditions can foster resilience and sustained commitment (Ronfeldt & McQueen,2017).

For many first-year teachers, the transition from pre-service preparation to full professional responsibility is experienced as abrupt and isolating. Feelings of uncertainty, professional loneliness, and self-doubt are commonly reported, particularly in schools with weak collaborative cultures or where ECTs are assigned challenging teaching loads. These experiences have significant implications for teacher well-being, with consequences not only for individual teachers but also for broader school functioning, including staff stability, collegial relationships, and continuity of student learning. Supporting ECTs during this formative period is therefore both a workforce sustainability issue and an educational quality issue.

Identifying the factors that enable ECTs to navigate the early years of teaching is essential for promoting long-term well-being and professional growth. Professional learning (PL) is widely promoted in policy discourse in New South Wales (NSW) and across European education systems as a key mechanism for supporting early-career development. Induction programmes, mentoring initiatives, and school-based professional learning communities are intended to enhance teachers’ motivation, adaptability, and instructional capacity. However, there remains a limited empirical understanding of how PL functions as a lived experience for ECTs. In particular, it is unclear under what conditions professional learning operates as a meaningful resource rather than an additional demand (Trust & Prestridge, 2021)

This study addresses this gap by examining professional learning through the lens of Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory. This theory provides a robust framework for understanding how workplace demands interact with available resources to shape employee wellbeing, engagement, and performance (Bakker et al., 2014). Applied to early career teaching, the theory enables an examination of whether and how professional learning mitigates job demands such as workload intensity, emotional labour, and role uncertainty, or alternatively, exacerbates stress when poorly aligned with ECTs’ needs (Sincock et al., 2026). By employing a qualitative case study approach in NSW schools, this project seeks to generate in-depth insights into how ECTs experience professional learning as a potential well-being resource. The findings are expected to have implications beyond the Australian context, informing policy and practice in European systems similarly concerned with early-career teacher well-being, retention, and sustainable professional growth.

This study employed a qualitative research design to gain in-depth insights into early career teachers’ perspectives and lived experiences of professional learning. A qualitative approach was particularly appropriate given the study’s focus on understanding how individuals interpret, negotiate, and make meaning of their professional learning practices within specific educational and organisational contexts. This approach enabled a rich exploration of how professional learning is perceived, enacted, and valued by early career teachers as they navigate the demands of their initial years in the profession. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with early career teachers (ECTs) in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were selected to balance consistency across participants with flexibility to probe individual experiences in depth. This method allowed participants to articulate their experiences in their own words, while also enabling the researcher to explore emerging issues related to professional learning, workplace demands, and well-being. All interviews were audio-recorded with participants’ consent and transcribed verbatim prior to analysis, ensuring accuracy and supporting a systematic and rigorous analytical process. The study involved 38 beginning teachers, with teaching experience ranging from less than 1 year to 5 years. The majority of participants (N = 27) reported between one and three years of teaching experience, reflecting a critical period of professional consolidation and adjustment. A smaller number of participants had less than one year of experience (N = 8), offering insight into the earliest stages of professional transition. In terms of gender, the sample comprised 23 female and 15 male teachers, providing a reasonably balanced representation of perspectives. Participants’ employment status varied considerably: 17 teachers held permanent positions, 10 were employed on temporary contracts, 6 were working in casual roles, and 5 had resigned from teaching at the time of data collection. This diversity in professional experience and employment status highlights the range of trajectories encountered by beginning teachers. In the New South Wales (NSW) public school system, ECTs are commonly employed on temporary or casual contracts before attaining permanent positions. While this pathway facilitates entry into the profession, it also exposes many beginning teachers to employment insecurity during their formative years. Such conditions are likely to shape their engagement with professional learning opportunities and influence their overall sense of well-being, making them a critical contextual factor for understanding ECTs’ experiences in this study.

Findings show that PL assumes a distinctly paradoxical role in the work of ECTs. On the one hand, when professional learning is closely aligned with ECTs’ immediate contextual needs and grounded in practical, classroom-relevant application, it operates as a salient job resource. In these cases, PL strengthens instructional capacity, builds professional confidence, and helps buffer the substantial demands of early career teaching. Many participants particularly valued mentoring-related professional learning, describing mentors who worked alongside them, modelled high-quality teaching practice, and provided both emotional reassurance and pedagogical guidance. However, when professional learning was perceived as poorly aligned with ECTs’ needs, overly generic, or disconnected from their teaching contexts, it functioned as an additional job demand. Participants reported that mandated PL sessions often intensified workload pressures by adding to already heavy time commitments without offering commensurate benefits. In these instances, PL was experienced as compliance-driven rather than developmental, contributing to frustration and emotional exhaustion. These findings make an important theoretical contribution by extending JD-R theory to professional learning in the early-career teaching context. Rather than conceptualising PL as inherently beneficial, the study demonstrates that professional learning can function simultaneously as a resource or a demand, depending on its design, relevance, and enactment. This highlights the need for more nuanced theorisation of professional learning within wellbeing frameworks, particularly in professions characterised by high emotional and cognitive demands. Schools and systems must move beyond one-size-fits-all professional learning models and prioritise differentiated, contextually responsive approaches that recognise ECTs’ distinct developmental needs. Mentoring structures, practice-based learning, and opportunities for sustained collaboration appear particularly effective in supporting both professional growth and wellbeing. Finally, the findings point to clear directions for future research. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine how ECTs’ experiences of professional learning evolve over time and how these experiences influence wellbeing, professional identity, and retention.

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