Consistent with the global focus on teacher shortages as a policy concern (See et al, 2023), it has been a prominent concern in the Irish education system since at least 2012 when the Sahlberg report, which recognised “the high calibre of entrants to ITE in Ireland” (Sahlberg et al., 2012, p. 19), highlighted potential future difficulties around recruitment and retention. Today, over a decade later, these issues continue to be emphasised as urgent by teacher unions, principal organisations and managerial bodies (Conway et al, 2024; Harford & Fleming, 2025). The many challenges associated with teacher supply come at a time when teaching remains a widely respected profession in Ireland (Teaching Council, 2015) with teachers reporting a strong level of commitment (Smyth et al., 2016, p. 154). However, we know little about teacher commitment beyond these early years. The empirical data for this paper on teacher commitment is drawn the Teachers Professional Journeys (TPJ): The First Decade (2024-2030) a national accelerated longitudinal mixed-methods study focused on understanding the dynamics of teacher learning and development from the final year of initial teacher education (ITE) through the first nine years of teachers’ work within classrooms and schools in the context of the wider education system at primary, post-primary and further education (FE) sectors in Ireland. The overarching aim of the TPJ study is to understand beginning teachers’ professional journeys via a national population sample of the 2019, 2022 and 2026 teacher cohorts. Given the dominance of research in teacher education on the first two to three years, TPJ provides a unique opportunity to provide insight into teacher commitment beyond the first three years of teaching (Hourigan et al, 2025). For the purpose of this paper, we draw on two TPJ data sources from TPJ: (i) the extent to which and how teacher commitment has been addressed in longitudinal studies of teachers drawing from a scoping review of longitudinal studies of teachers (2000-2023) and (ii) the first wave of survey data from year four and year seven teachers in primary, post-primary and further education and training. Findings from the scoping review include the relatively low numbers of included longitudinal studies that address teacher commitment, the somewhat differing framing, measurement and designs to address teacher commitment. Survey administration is taking place in Spring 2026 and findings from the wave one survey will be presented at the proposed symposium.

Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Smyth, E., Calderón, A., Fitzgerald, J., Hourigan, M., & Ní Chróinín, D., Fitzpatrick, M., Zubareva, A. (2024). Teachers’ Professional Journeys during the first decade longitudinal study: Reviews of literature: Report No.1 , Limerick: University of Limerick. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34961/researchrepository-ul.28399763 Harford, J., & Fleming, B. (2025). Teacher supply in Ireland: anatomy of a crisis. Irish Educational Studies, 44(1), 41-54. Hourigan, M., Ní Chróinín, D., Fitzgerald, J., Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Smyth, E. & Fitzpatrick, M. (2025) The first decade of teachers’ professional lives: a scoping review of research in the Republic of Ireland, Irish Educational Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2025.2571034 Sahlberg, P., Munn, P. Furlong, J. (2012) Report of the International Review Panel on the Structure of Initial Teacher Education Provision in Ireland: Dublin: Higher Education Authority. https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/05/Review-of-Structure-of-Teacher-Education.pdf See, B. H., Gorard, S., Morris, R., & Ventista, O. (2023). Rethinking the complex determinants of teacher shortages. In The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research, 75-102. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Smyth, E., Conway, P. F., Leavy, A., Darmody, M., Banks, J., & Watson, D. (2016). Review of the Droichead teacher induction pilot programme (Report). Dublin: ESRI. Teaching Council. 2015. Striking the Balance: Teacher Supply in Ireland. Maynooth: Teaching Council.