“Teaching is important, but it’s not important”: a qualitative study of teacher identity among early-career academics in health professions

Early-career academics (ECAs) constitute a substantial part of the teaching workforce in health professions education (HPE), yet their teacher identity is often marginalized in academic and clinical workplaces and may therefore remain underdeveloped. This study investigates how ECAs, with teaching responsibilities in HPE, construct and negotiate their teacher identities in relation to valuing teaching. Qualitative data from 11 ECAs across three Danish research-intensive universities were collected through semester-long audio diaries and exit interviews. Teacher identity was theorized using Kelchtermans' (2009) Personal Interpretative Framework as a sensitizing concept for understanding what it means to be a teacher, while Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans, 2001) was used to analyze the findings with attention to the dynamic processes of identity formation. Key findings showed that ECAs' teacher identity constructions and negotiations were shaped by tensions between internalized institutional priorities that often devalue teaching, a lack of community and support that can lead to loneliness, and their own personal motivation and moral commitment to teaching. The study contributes two constructs central to explaining this: (1) institutionally imposed template identities to not prioritize teaching, and (2) loneliness related to imagined teacher communities. The study recommends supporting teacher identity through recognition of teaching as a relational and moral practice. Faculty development should address loneliness, and institutions should avoid exploiting ECAs' altruism and ensure that institutional recognition of teaching holds real weight in reward and career systems.