Over the past decade, teacher resignations have been on the rise, particularly among those new to the profession. To curb this phenomenon, it is important to better understand how a sense of professional identity develops and the factors that play a role in its construction.

This 2025 school year, a number of classes have once again found themselves without teachers . This shortage of teachers appears to be a headache for successive governments, faced with the low attractiveness of the profession . Not only do the competitive exams struggle to attract candidates, but once this threshold is reached, we also observe a further loss of vocations. For the past ten years, the professional dropout rate of teachers, particularly novices, has been increasing.

Witnessing this climate, numerous studies are currently warning of the unease among teachers and pointing to a context of professional integration under tension which can be explained by the growing complexity of the profession, workloads that are difficult to maintain, insufficient recognition, etc. The shock of reality highlighted for 50 years and the gap between the fantasy profession and the reality of the profession persist.

Our analysis of the situation questions the identity shaping of novice primary school teachers, in relation to the process of professional integration and/or dropout . Once they have won a competition and are recognized by the institution, do novice teachers feel fully like teachers?

We will model the transition from student to teacher in the form of four identity shifts, considered as typical stages through which all novice teachers pass in a singular order and rhythm.

Responsibilities to assume

Surprisingly, there are many situations in which novice teachers delegate their responsibility by stepping back from the students. In nursery school, the relationship with the specialized territorial agent for nursery schools (Atsem) , often older than the novice teacher and with a detailed knowledge of the classroom context, explains why novice teachers entrust them with certain tasks that are their responsibility (forming groups, explaining the work to be done, etc.). Similarly, during the first swimming lessons, they do not hesitate to refer to the swimming instructor, considered as “the professional.”

This shift also depends on the way students are characterized. While some take full responsibility for the origin of classroom events (students who are not attentive, a session that didn’t work as hoped, etc.) and engage in actions aimed at influencing them, others blame students for their lack of interest (“They don’t care”), abandon the problem, and prevent themselves from taking action.

For the novice teacher, the challenge of this shift is then to perceive the link between the actions he constructs and their effects on the actions of the students, to take the main responsibility for what happens in class.

The shift in professional gestures

The responsibility assumed by novice teachers is directly linked to their sense of efficiency, in other words, to the development and mastery of professional gestures. Controlling the class without exhausting oneself, teaching students, or even regaining their attention requires these professional gestures.

Some seek to “copy” them, in other words to reproduce identically those of experienced teachers (or even, paradoxically, of people who are not part of the profession: the Atsem, the swimming instructor, etc.). However, they note the inefficiency of this reproduction of gestures without understanding their meaning and without contextualizing them. So they gradually seek to free themselves from them by adjusting them to the contexts of the classroom.

Only gestures that give satisfaction are retained; those deemed ineffective are rejected. Repeatedly confronted with ineffective and unsatisfactory gestures, novice teachers are led to doubt their ability to respond to students and are unable to switch to introducing their own professional gestures. The process of professional attachment is slowed down and the shaping of their professional identity is undermined.

Putting prescriptions into perspective

At the beginning of their careers, teachers quickly realize that they cannot follow the numerous and sometimes contradictory prescriptions they are faced with to the letter. Some therefore free themselves by allowing themselves to “renormalize” them, in order to become more effective. To achieve this, their professional entourage (trainers, peers, colleagues, tutor) plays a major role, sharing their choices in dilemma situations.

Novice teachers can then carry out renormalizations “by proxy”, by taking up the choices of others, or moving away from them. If being a teacher requires following the prescriptions, shaping a professional identity thus requires a voluntary and thoughtful emancipation, which requires making compromises (finishing the program by quickly going over certain concepts or going deeper into the concepts even if it means not doing everything…) and marking deviations from the prescription. Novice teachers thus gain spaces of freedom which contribute to the shaping of identity and their professional connection.

Recognitions that shape professional identity

Throughout the year, novice teachers oscillate between moments when they still see themselves as students and more as teachers. There are many circumstances that explain this dynamic: a student’s question that comforts or disorients, a comment from a parent or colleague, etc. Typically, receiving the keys to the school or their first pay slip, carrying out administrative procedures for the first time, or receiving gifts before the holidays are all signs of recognition “given” by others.

Beyond these situations, professional identity is primarily shaped by “acquired” recognition, obtained in the classroom, through the students’ own successes, their progress, and the improvement of the classroom climate thanks to their perseverance. Novice teachers then feel like they are “professionals.” This identity shift therefore plays out in the transition from recognition “by other adults” to recognition “by the students.”

This identity approach questions the support to be provided to these young teachers to trigger identity shifts: encouraging the taking of responsibilities, opening up reflection on professional actions adapted to the circumstances, authorizing deviations from the prescription and supporting the recognition of the work carried out.

The support of the collective found in schools is indeed essential to avoid isolation, to take ownership of the teaching profession and to practice in a protected environment that reassures and encourages the taking of initiatives. The same is true of the support provided by the tutor, a true balancing act who must, for example, ensure the proper application of official texts while promoting professional emancipation.

In the event of persistent difficulties, local individualized professional support systems provide valuable assistance in entering the profession . Failing to attract new teachers, the effort to avoid exacerbating the teacher shortage then focuses on keeping students and novice teachers motivated, by offering them enhanced support that can be extended to continuing education.

Let us hope that the reform of teacher training and the creation of a “Teachership in Schools” degree, with internships in establishments offered from the first year of studies, will once again inspire vocations and promote the shaping of identity!

Author Bio: Philippe Zimmermann is a Lecturer in Educational Sciences at the University of Strasbourg