Turning Points, Values, and Career Development in First-Year University Initial Teacher Education Students

This study examines how first-year Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students navigate early career development through critical turning points, the articulation of personal values, and the development of resilience. While teacher identity and professional formation have been explored conceptually, there remains limited empirical insight into students’ lived experiences at this formative stage. Adopting a qualitative design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 first-year ITE students from three UK universities, representing diverse cultural backgrounds and entry pathways, at the end of their first academic year. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach. Four interconnected themes emerged: clarifying purpose through critical turning points, negotiating tensions between personal values and institutional expectations, building resilience through community and reflective practice, and articulating meaning through spiritual perspectives in early teacher development. The findings demonstrate that formative experiences are not isolated events but are embedded within broader developmental trajectories shaped by relational support and opportunities for meaning-making. The study contributes to wider debates on early professional identity formation by offering an integrated, empirically grounded account of how purpose, values, and resilience interact to shape sustainable career pathways. Implications are discussed for ITE programme design and for supporting early-career development in the teaching profession and beyond.