This contribution reports on a study that aimed to gain insights into early-career teachers’ self-esteem during their first years of teaching. 91 early-career teachers (ECTs) were included, who were involved in induction programmes, containing elements such as professional coaching and collaborative reflection sessions (Helms-Lorenz, 2020). Burke and Stets (2009) described self-esteem as an evaluation of one’s own professional identity, comprised of self-appreciation on the job and one’s performance as a teacher in general. Self-esteem not only affects the ability of ECTs to survive the first teaching years, but also affects their well-being, professional development, and lifelong learning. One of the major questions is how ECTs develop their self-esteem, and which experiences affect how it is formed. The ECTs completed semi-structured journals halfway through the first year of their induction in secondary education. Questions included: How would you describe yourself as a teacher at this moment (in general)? Was this image of yourself subject to change in the previous months and what affected this change? Next to self-esteem, we coded positive experiences with pupils, powerful moments in the classroom and meaningful feedback from colleagues or supervisors, and/or perceived professional development opportunities; and negative interactions with, for example, pupils, colleagues, school leaders and/or parents which were not in line with their current self-esteem. Results show that ECTs differed in their self-esteem, ranging from seeing themselves as innovative and ambitious about improving educational practices, to doubting their ability to become ‘good’ teachers. We found that the latter group was vulnerable to dropping out. More than half of the ECTs reported high self-esteem, while approximately one-tenth low self-esteem. ECTs with high self-esteem often reported positive experiences that boasted their self-esteem (i.e., continuous experiences), while those with low self-esteem frequently reported negative (i.e., discontinuous) experiences, undermining their self-esteem. One-third of the ECTs reported both high and low self-esteem, and they perceived their experiences as both continuous and discontinuous. This means that almost half of the ECTs in our study reported a high/low or low self-esteem, often caused by negative experiences with, for example, pupils and direct colleagues. Considering the predictive value of self-esteem (Crocker & Park, 2004), it is likely that those ECTs are vulnerable to teacher drop-out. Specific coaching and mentoring might help to support early-career teachers to deal with experiences that potentially affect their self-esteem in a negative way, in order to create more continuous experiences.

Burke, P.J., & Stets, J.E. (2009). Identity theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388275.001.0001. Crocker, J., & Park, L.E. (2004). The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem. Psychological Bulletin, 130 (3):, 392–414. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.392. Helms-Lorenz, M. (2020). Begeleiding Startende Leraren 2014-2019. Eindrapportage. University of Groningen. [Supervising Beginning Teachers 2014-2019. Final report].