Exploring Challenges Faced by Early Career Primary School Teachers: A Qualitative Study

This study explored the challenges faced by 23 primary early career teachers (ECTs) in their second, third or fourth years of teaching. Qualitative data were collected through an online semi-structured interview. Three themes were evident: parents, workload and behaviour management. These results were also reflected in the review of the literature. All three themes have been linked to increased ECT stress and have been found to undermine ECTs’ self-confidence. The results suggest that some challenges are potentially aligned to the stage of ECTs’ career development and that ECTs face different challenges as their teaching experience levels increase. A range of cohort specific themes were also identified. For second year ECTs, many of the challenges may potentially reflect their limited experience within the profession. As such, the challenges focused more on the logistics of doing the job and adjustment to the emotional and time demands of teaching. By the third and fourth year of teaching, the cohort-specific themes identified in the present study had changed to reflect broader school-based and interpersonal relationship issues. Three recommendations are made in the light of the research findings.