The second paper examines the project’s core concepts of flourishing and becoming, providing a framework for recognising the strengths and resources that newly qualified teachers bring as developing professional subjects. Traditionally, research on the induction phase has viewed new teachers from a deficit perspective. It has been assumed that NQT still have a lot to learn before becoming proficient teachers (Kelchtermans, 2019; Skytterstad et al., 2025). This project instead focuses on their potentials. Drawing from Kristján Kristjánsson (2020) and Gert Biesta (2020), the theoretical concepts of “becoming” and “flourishing” refocus attention on the agency of new teachers. In recent years, international education policy discussions have increasingly framed the purpose of education in terms of human flourishing (e.g. OECD 2025). In this project, we draw on neo-Aristotelian educational theory on flourishing (Kristjánsson, 2020, 2023; 2025). Kristjánsson summarizes the contemporary flourishing theories as (1) eudaimonic (neo-Aristotelian), (2) liberal, (3) self-determination-theory, and (4) positive psychology perspectives. In this project, we focus specifically on the eudaimonic view, based on Aristotle's idea of the good life (eudaimonia) as the goal of life. The aim is to realize the human potentials and strengths of new teachers, striving to become the best versions of themselves. The concept of ‘becoming’ builds on Biesta‘s (2020) concept of subjectification which is about becoming an autonomous and responsible subject who can take a stance and act in the world – not just follow norms or adapt to established practices. Subjectification invites mentors to create spaces where NQTs can appear as autonomous, responsible, and agentic professional subjects capable of making pedagogical decisions by themselves. The subjectification-based approach does not view new teachers as objects of mentoring but as autonomous subjects with whom experienced teachers act as peer learners and facilitators. Beijaard et al. (2023), in their empirical review, also refer to becoming in discussing the interrelated processes of professional learning and identity formation. The latter is an ongoing process of validating learning experiences considering one’s “image-of-oneself-as-teacher,” that is, the teacher that one is and wants to become. Hence becoming refers to the dynamic and ongoing process of developing a professional identity involving both personal growth and professional formation – finding one’s voice as a teacher. However, the pursuit of flourishing and subjectification is not understood as promoting individualism, but rather the opposite: it emphasizes agency as a collective commitment to deliberation, through which the value base underlying education is corroborated.

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