Perceived demands and resources in the professional life of beginning primary school teachers

In this qualitative, descriptive study we aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the realities of the working contexts of beginning primary school teachers by identifying their perceived job demands, job resources, personal demands and personal resources. Teacher shortages are pressing, and attrition is particularly high among beginning teachers. Therefore, retaining beginning teachers seems of utmost importance. Rather than focusing on beginning teachers themselves (i.e. ‘fixing’ the teacher), this study examines their challenging work characteristics in their working and learning context, as well as the personal aspects that interact with these challenges. We used the job demands-resources model (JD-R model) as theoretical lens. Our research question was: Which specific job demands, job resources, personal demands, and personal resources do beginning primary school teachers perceive in their professional life? We interviewed 21 beginning primary school teachers and used thematic analysis to identify job demands, job resources, personal demands, and personal resources, and relevant themes within these categories. Results highlight that beginning teachers’ day-to-day experiences are determined not only by the specifics of the job, but also by contextual and personal factors. Our findings underscore the importance of adopting a holistic perspective on beginning teacher retention in the context of primary education. Furthermore, our results indicate the importance of a person-environment fit regarding demanding and resourceful aspects within beginning teachers’ working context. We also discuss implications for the use of the JD-R model in context of primary education, as our findings indicated fluctuation in categorization of work characteristics as demand or resource.