The first years of teaching constitute a significant stage in a teacher’s life, being associated, among other aspects, with a process of professional socialization, adaptation to the school context, and the formation of professional identity. Indeed, this is a period of intense learning that may represent, for beginning teachers (those who are in the first three to five years of professional practice), easy or difficult beginnings (Huberman, 1991), depending on the more or less positive experience that this period entails. This phase is often associated with the “reality shock” or “transition shock” (Veenman, 1984; Marcelo, 1994) resulting from the difficulties and challenges that novice teachers face in the exercise of their professional activity, namely classroom management, student motivation, dealing with individual differences, assessment, and difficulties related to the scarcity of teaching materials (Veenman, 1984; Valli, 1992; Flores, 2000; Dicke et al., 2015; Aarts et al., 2019; Marcelo et al., 2021), which contrast with their expectations and beliefs. Personal and professional survival, trial and error, and professional isolation are also identified as aspects (Olson & Osborne, 1991; Marcelo, 1994), resulting, in some cases, in early departure from the profession. It is a time of construction of professional identity (Kane & Russell, 2005), often marked by discrepancies between expectations and the reality of the classroom (Jones, 2003), in a struggle to find a balance between images of the profession and the reality of schools, which, in many cases, translates into a tension between conservatism and innovation (Flores & Ferreira, 2009). The seminal work of Flores and Day (2006), based on a study conducted in Portugal, highlights the marked influences in the construction of new teachers’ identities, especially with regard to the way contextual, cultural, and biographical factors affect their teaching practice. The same authors show how the identities of beginning teachers were deconstructed and reconstructed over time as a function of the relative influence of biographical variables, the training programme, and school culture. Pillen, Beijaard, and den Brok (2013), in the Netherlands, also highlight a set of tensions in the development of professional identity resulting from conflicts between the personal and the professional, between desires and reality, giving rise to feelings of anguish and frustration. Added to this is the study by Schellings et al. (2023), with 45 novice teachers, which highlights the personal and professional dimensions with a focus on the teacher, the students, and the organisation, emphasizing the peculiar and idiosyncratic nature of the process of becoming a teacher, centred on five themes: classroom management, student learning, workload, collaboration, and assuming one’s position as a teacher. Considering the aforementioned aspects, there is consensus regarding the relevance and need to provide new teachers with support and guidance during the initiation to teaching phase or induction period, which, according to the literature, corresponds to the first years of autonomous teaching practice (Flores, 2000, 2021, 2024; Alarcão & Roldão, 2014), after initial training, including the practicum, has been completed. This is, moreover, the phase of the continuum of a teacher’s training and professional development (initial training, induction, and continuing professional development) that has received less attention from a political and institutional perspective, often being described as the missing link between initial training and continuing professional development. However, from a research perspective, the induction period has received considerable attention, as exemplified by the special interest group “Teacher Induction” of the American Educational Research Association and the TIME project (Teacher induction and mentoring in Europe) within the European Educational Research Association (see also Helms-Lorenz et al., 2026).
Empirical studies conducted in Portugal have consistently and repeatedly shown the difficulties faced by teachers at the beginning of their careers, especially in the areas of classroom management, curriculum planning, assessment of learning, and relations with the educational community (Flores, 2000, 2010, 2021; Alves, 2001; Ponte, Galvão, Trigo-Santos & Oliveira, 2001; Braga, 2001), challenges that are amplified by the absence of formal, structured, and systematic induction programmes. The National Education Council has warned of the importance of the induction period and the need to consider the continuum of teachers’ training and professional development (initial training, induction, and continuing professional development). The documents of the National Education Council clearly point to the importance of teacher induction, underlining the need for its implementation in our country. In fact, Recommendation No. 3/2024, of 2 April, explicitly emphasizes the need to institutionalize professional induction as a phase of professional development, through the creation of “professional induction programmes for teachers entering the profession, after initial training has been completed, that enhance their professional socialization and the development of a collaborative professional culture among more experienced teachers and novices” (CNE, 2024a, p. 7). In this recommendation, the National Education Council argues that the transition from initial training to the autonomous exercise of teaching duties cannot depend on informal or unequal mechanisms across schools, but must instead be based on structured support, mentoring, and formative supervision devices that strengthen the training continuum.
The National Education Council has also been analysing the challenges associated with the professional integration of new teachers, warning of the negative effects of job insecurity, forced mobility, and the absence of structured support in the first years of practice (CNE, 2016a, 2024b). In the report Initial Training of Educators and Teachers and Access to the Profession, it is stated that “Teacher training should be seen as a continuum of lifelong learning, and may be considered in three stages: initial training, the induction phase at the beginning of the career, and continuing training” (CNE, 2016b, p. 6). Studies, reports, and recommendations show that the lack of consistent induction policies contributes to early professional exhaustion and to a decline in the attractiveness of the teaching career, especially among younger teachers. In the technical report on structuring dimensions of the teaching profession (CNE, 2024b), the purposes of implementing the induction period are identified as: i) ensuring a gradual process of professional socialization; ii) providing support and developing professional competences in partnership with more experienced teachers; and iii) preventing early departure from the profession. In short, the publications of the National Education Council reiterate the importance of induction as a decisive stage in teachers’ professional development, constituting a strategic imperative for improving the quality of teaching, retaining qualified teachers, consolidating professional identity, and building professional learning communities, thereby reinforcing the collective dimension of the profession. The documents of the National Education Council thus converge in defending a public policy of professional teacher induction within the broader framework of valuing the teaching profession and ensuring the sustainability of the education system, in line with the recommendations of international bodies such as the OECD and the European Commission. The National Education Council considered it essential to promote broad reflection on the issue of teacher induction and, in addition to other initiatives developed within the 4th Permanent Specialized Commission “Teachers and Other Education Professionals,” decided to make a set of recommendations in this area. (...)