1 Beginning of teaching: outlining the theme, searching for research

The starting of the teaching activity as addressed by Veenman, 1984; ^{Huberman, 1995}; Marcelo García, 1999; and ^{Tardif, 2002} has been considered the five first years of professional exercise, even if this chronological period might not have reached a consensus since there are studies defending that it should last up to the third year of professional work. Therefore, we observed that the transition from the initial education to the moment of effective professional insertion is mainly based on the chronological dimension. In other words, when addressing studies on beginning of teaching, the founding characteristic of these studies seems to be the fact that the participants are professionals giving their first steps in the classroom work.

The first dissertations and theses (^{LEQUERICA, 1983}; CASTRO, 1992; ^{INFORSATO, 1995}; ^{GUARNIERI, 1996}; ^{ANGOTTI, 1998}) are known to have accomplished this analysis based on the chronological criterion. However, some questioning has already been raised, even if not deepened, by ^{Marcelo Garcia (1999)} suggesting that every event of professional beginning, every change in the professional context might generate feelings of professional initiation (^{DERISSO, 2020}).

As a corollary of this conceptual change, it seems important to register the dispersion of descriptors that were applied to the repository of dissertations and theses to perform the search for the studies. To obtain the sample of the analytical corpus of dissertations and theses, we surveyed the webpage of the Brazilian Digital Library of Dissertations and Theses (Biblioteca Brasileira Digital de Dissertações e Teses). The initial search used the descriptor “beginning teacher” and its possible variations such as “beginner teacher”, “new teacher”, and “novice teacher”. Considering the change previously mentioned, we also used the descriptors “professional insertion”, “teaching initiation”, “professional induction”, and “professional socialization”.

Without the purpose of putting forward a state-of-the-art study¹, this article provides an overview of dissertations and theses that were available in that digital base and those obtained after the dissemination of electronic messages to authors of earlier works whose digital version was not available. The objective was to gather dissertations and theses in which the discussion of the beginning of teaching was the central theme of the research and that had been produced in the context of stricto sensu programs in the education and teaching areas, regardless of the fact that they were academic or professional programs. This cut was necessary, among other reasons, for the fact that an expressive number of studies was found in different areas of knowledge, whose central theme was the investigation of self-employed professionals who became teachers, as, for example, studies analyzing the bachelor of administration professional and the process followed by him/her to become a higher education teacher.

In such scenery, the first aspect to call attention is the precariousness of data bases. This was observed from the moment we noticed repeated versions of the same work for a certain descriptor during the survey. For this reason, due to the way data bases cross the searches, it is impossible to evaluate the final number of studies and the proportionality of those focusing on the beginning of teaching theme. The same dissertation could appear up to three times in the same search using a specific descriptor.

In addition, another aspect that drew our attention was lack of authorization to access the works. Some digital libraries require a user’s previous register, others inform that the work is only available to the users’ internal access. Also, about such precariousness, a high number of links to the scientific texts did not work and therefore, it was impossible to access the research.

Considering this scenery, messages were sent to the authors to get access to their work, but very few replied to the messages. The period investigated was from 1983 (year of register of the first specific study on the beginning of teaching) to 2019 (final year of the works surveyed) and 240 articles were found. However, 205 were accessed, out of those, 148 were master’s dissertations and 57 were doctorate theses.

It seems relevant to emphasize that in addition to the difficulty found to access some works, either for being older and for not having been made available in digital media, or for lack of return from the authors, this article cannot be considered state-of-the-art research because we were not concerned with analyzing all existing works on the theme (something that would be impossible for one researcher only). The cut proposed resulted in the search performed in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic hampered even the input of data in the digital data bases of dissertations and theses during that period.

As previously mentioned, this is another bibliographic survey that sought to offer an overview of the production on the theme and in this regard presents a different analytical scope from that of the other four reports listed above. Therefore, it aims at contributing to the broadening of analytical and explaining possibilities related to the features of the beginning of the teaching activity in Brazil.

The master’s dissertation presented by ^{Mariano (2006)} analyzed the works published in the proceedings of the ENDIPE (Didactics and Teaching Practice National Meeting) and the ANPEd (National Association of Education Research and Post-graduation) between 1995 and 2004. The author presented the main trends among these works, seeking to point out the existing gaps up to that moment. In such scenery, for example, the author reported that there was a gap regarding the beginning teacher working with cultural diversity. In the next section of this article, we will see that this gap has not been filled in yet.

The article by ^{Papi and Martins (2010)} discussed the works presented at the ANPEd between 2005 and 2007 along with dissertations and theses defended between 2000 and 2007. Those authors concluded their report stating that most studies analyzed focused on the beginning teachers’ teaching practice, the construction of their professional identity, professional socialization, and the difficulties faced in this period of their careers. This text seeks to show how these themes are still quite recurrent in the studies analyzed.

The report by ^{Ciríaco and Silva (2020)} developed an analysis of dissertations and theses in the period from 2006 to 2016. Those authors observed that feelings of reality shock, survival, and discovery were experienced in different contexts and seem to have been the main features in the studies surveyed.

The article published by ^{Almeida et al. (2020)} presented an integrating synthesis, broadening the analytical scope of the three previous studies. Those authors analyzed dissertations, theses, articles published on the platform Scielo, and works presented at the ANPEd between 2000 and 2019. To a great extent, it confirmed data found in the previous studies and highlighted the emergence of analysis of professional insertion programs, mainly from 2014 onwards, which promoted a significant increase in these productions.

This article is inserted in this debate, seeking to deepen the analyses by including the first dissertations (^{LEQUERICA, 1983}; ^{CASTRO, 1992}) and theses addressing the theme (INFOSATO, 1995; ^{GUARNIERI, 1996}; ^{ANGOTTI, 1998}). We gathered the first studies developed on the beginning of teaching theme that are registered in data bases. In the sections below, we present the main trends of this theme, aiming to advocate that although it can already be considered a consolidated theme in the teachers’ education field, it is not restricted to this area.

2 The beginning of teaching period in Brazilian dissertations and theses: what do we know?

It seems relevant to emphasize the significant increase in studies on the beginning of teaching theme. While in the late 1990s it was an emerging theme, nowadays it is recognized as a fully consolidated theme and that raises growing interest, with a relatively stable production from 2013 onwards (Chart 1). The reduction observed in 2019 might be a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in 2020 and impacted the input of data in the digital dissertation and thesis data bases).

As observed above, the theme appeared as a discussion topic in the 1980s and could be considered emerging in the following decade, it remained stable in the first decade of the XXI century, and started to be consolidated in the last decade.

It seems to be relevant to emphasize that the majority of works was produced within research lines linked to the teachers’ education field. This does not mean that the beginning of teaching theme has been limited exclusively to the education field and its references. However, it seems that the prevailing understanding that when addressing teachers’ education, the focus lies in the analysis and understanding of phenomena such as professional learning, professional development, and the process of professional identity construction. Obviously, these themes are not limited to the beginning of teaching period, but they are the ones that further this specific discussion, which is explained by the epistemological boundaries of the discussions.

Moreover, this also indicates that studies on the beginning of teaching theme still present exclusive concern with the school education and lack discussions about the professional insertion outside of this traditionally established space.

A second aspect to be highlighted within the corpus analyzed refers to the institutions where the selected studies were produced. Among the several institutions that have education postgraduate programs, four outstand in the research on the beginning of teaching period.

Two pieces of data in the chart above deserve special attention. First, the stable role played by the UFSCar regarding the production on this theme. In addition to holding two of the first doctorate theses on the theme (^{GUARNIERI, 1996}; ^{ANGOTTI, 1998}), the institution has been seen as a consolidated center for keeping at least two studies on the theme a year. Regarding this central position, the other institutions in the chart (PUCSP, UnB, UFMT), considering the chronological criterion of dissertations and theses, appear as emerging centers where the theme starts to gain importance. Second, although PUCSP has six programs in the education area (four academic and two professional programs), the expressive number of works originated in the Program of Postgraduate Studies on Education: Education Physchology and in the Education Professional Postgraduate Program: Educators’ Qualification².

A third aspect to be considered refers to the time in the career reported by the individuals taking part in the dissertation and thesis research. All studies addressed the chronological element as the main criterion for the discussions about the beginning of teaching period, and their theoretical background usually included ^{Marcelo García (1999)}, ^{Tardif (2002)}, and ^{Huberman (1995)}. We observed that the professional life cycle by Huberman is still the great explaining argument for the beginning of teaching configuration. And considering the cycle, most of the studies report that the beginning of teaching period extends up to the fifth year of professional activity.

Considering the elements presented above, we can affirm that there was only one study considering professionals at the beginning of their career up to the sixth year of their professional work. As for this period, there are at least two relevant gaps to be filled in, namely, there are very few productions addressing the first year of professional activity of these beginning teachers and there are even less studies focusing on the issue put forward by ^{Marcelo García (1999)}, who observed that in each new situation of professional initiation, the beginning teaching context can be relived. Regarding the latter, the study by ^{Derisso (2020)} analyzed this professional restart, but due to the chronological criterion of this study, it could not be included in our corpus of analysis.

Thus, this article goes beyond the terminology of beginning teacher (even recognizing the precariousness and limitation of rigid definitions) and seeks to introduce and defend the idea that the corpus analyzed allowed the identification of three conceptual terminologies from the themes focused in the studies. For this reason, the expression “teaching initiation” is used when the focus is less on the person (teacher) and more on the understanding of the professional situations that surround the professional in their routine while developing his/her teaching practice and the construction of his/her professional learning.

Also, this terminology has been used by studies that adopted the chronological criterion as a defining element. When the study focused on the professionals to be analyzed, for example, investigating the processes of construction of their professional identity from their own perceptions, we observed quite often the use of terms such as “beginning teacher”, “new teacher”, and “novice teacher”. However, in professional restart situations, we observed the use of the expression “professional initiation situations” since this implies, among other things, the understanding that the feelings of reality shock, survival, and discovery might be relived in each new professional context, either resulting from changes in the level of teaching, moving to a different institution, a different class, or even different working hours within the same institution.

Going beyond the list of terminologies, we could point out that the analyzed production seems to present its conceptual propositions to allow the debate analytical increase. From this scenery, they started to refine the conceptual orientations of a theme whose production and debate have been consolidated within the teachers’ education field. This article does not aim at defining the terminology to be adopted, even because we recognize the dynamic character of both the Portuguese language and the science. However, we must recognize that some variation of studies have appeared that increased the analytical views on the theme, and this can be better constructed from some concept definitions.

This text does not defend a strict border stating, for example, that a study on professional identity cannot be analyzed within the discussions about professional learning of teaching or new beginnings. The stricter scientific boundaries are, the less they contribute to the debate advancement. Therefore, this is an attempt, from the selected studies analysis, to collaborate with the area in the establishment of defined analytical categories. Considering the scope accumulated and that has been growing, it is possible to make this move.

Aiming to introduce the characteristics of the studies selected, two aspects are approached: a) the teaching level researched and the most emphasized school subjects. Regarding the former, the data is systematized below:

The chart above illustrates that little is known about teaching initiation at the high school level. The initial years of elementary school are still the ones that attract more attention from dissertations and theses followed by higher education, which was also a recurrent level of teaching in the works selected. It seems relevant to emphasize that the total number of studies in the chart is below the total number of works analyzed because not all dissertations and theses mentioned the level of teaching of the participants or even because their methodology included professional life histories and the participants were not asked to reveal, in their memories, the level of the classes they worked with. There were also dissertations and theses that analyzed more than one level of teaching at the same time.

Considering the works that focused on the final years of elementary school and high school, we observed that some school subjects seemed to be preferred. For example, there were 17 studies focusing on teaching initiation situations in mathematics teaching. This fact might also be explained by the fact that in addition to teacher’s education research lines there are mathematical education programs, and many of these programs hold research lines in sciences and mathematics education and produce studies on teaching initiation.

The theoretical background presented by the dissertations and theses analyzed were another relevant factor. Without necessarily specifying the number of quotations in each work this study sought to analyze the most used authors. Regarding international authors, the most cited in descending order were Carlos Marcelo García, Maurice Tardif, Michael Huberman, Antonio Nóvoa and Francisco Imbernón. When searching for national authors, the most cited were the professors Marli André, Bernardete Gatti, Selma Garrido Pimenta, and Maria da Graça Mizukami.

More than simply presenting a list of most cited authors in order to rank them, the scenery shown above reveals some relevant epistemological contours for the discussion of the beginning of teaching theme. In relation to that, we observed some conceptual differences, with a hegemony of scholars anchored in the practice epistemology or what ^{Contreras (2002)} calls practical rationality.

Such hegemony raises aspects that shape the beginning of teaching as, for example, the recognition that initial education institutions, in the best scenario, barely teach their students to enter in the classroom, as defended by ^{Zeichner (1993)}. This implies that the process of learning to be a teacher develops in the routine of the teaching activity. This prerogative does not disqualify the subjects taught by the teachers’ education institutions, conversely, they collaborate with a thorough delimitation of the strengths and weaknesses of teachers’ initial education courses. This is not about defending that the courses should be essentially theoretical or the opposite, but rather recognizing that different types of knowledge achieve different aims. Therefore, the experience knowledge, as defended by the practice epistemology, cannot be acquired from the seats of the teachers’ education institutions.

The practice epistemology also emphasizes the idea that the focus of analysis is not exclusively processed in technical issues (even if, the results of the works surveyed still point out the beginning teachers focus on the question: “how do I teach that?”), but that it relies on the kind of analysis that take into consideration the teachers’ practice subjective factors.

Another finding from the list of authors cited is a timid discussion about a critical epistemology in the understanding of the beginning of teaching period, even considering the frailty of rigid theoretical classifications. To illustrate, it seems relevant to mention that Paulo Freire, for example, is frequently cited under headings (epigraphs) or very specifically at certain points of the reports. However, this does not imply an adhesion to his theoretical background. In other words, there are still gaps in the production of knowledge about how to understand the beginning of teaching period from other references that are not only the ones anchored in the practice epistemology. This reveals huge analytical possibilities to be explored.

In an attempt to look into other gaps in this research field, we observed the lack of studies analyzing the dimension of social markers at the beginning of teaching period. This means, for example, that very little is known about possible analysis of factors such as social class, race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, and religion of the participants in the studies surveyed. The way these professionals deal with cultural diversity in their practice is still unknown. The questioning arising from this issue is: don’t these markers influence the beginning of teaching situations? Or does this silence around such discussions result from the hegemony of the practice epistemology reference, which highlights other analytical elements? If the answer to the second question is affirmative, it confirms the importance and urgency of broadening theoretical possibilities so that new analyses can be carried out.

One important aspect to be highlighted in the scope selected regards the themes investigated. Carrying out this type of systematization is not an easy task since it is quite common in the human sciences area to find similar themes addressed from conceptual or terminological distinct categories. Instead of presenting a long list of the investigated themes, we list only the most incident among all dissertations and theses.

The following themes were the most recurrent in the research dedicated to the beginning of teaching period: a) relations and contributions of mentorship programs or online support, collaborative groups; b) professional socialization; c) constitution of identity processes and/or teachers’ professionalism; d) relations between teaching different types of knowledge (considering their multiple origins) and the teaching practice; e) ways of learning and/or teachers’ professional development; f) qualification needs; g) relations between initial career and initial education; h) constitution of teaching in higher education; i) difficulties and dilemmas; and j) relations and contributions of teaching induction programs such as PIBID, for example.

Other themes that have been emerging, even if discretely, are: teachers’ work toward the ethnic/racial issue, teaching initiation outside the regular phases of basic education such as the youth and adult education, for example, and analysis of the beginning teachers’ working conditions.

The last element to be referred to is the results of dissertations and theses. Taking into consideration differences regarding epistemology, research focus, work context conditions, and teaching levels, a lot of the data collected obtained convergent results in the studies surveyed.

The main findings included: a) beginning teachers develop their practice in extremely adverse contexts; b) initial learning is strongly marked by attempt and error; c) reality shock and survival feelings make this phase of their career quite sensitive, and it is the feeling of discovery that motivates permanence in the profession; d) beginning teachers must develop their work with the “classes that are considered ‘the worst’” and they are submitted to a lonely process of professional learning; e) among the several intraschool aspects that impact the beginning teachers’ job, the three most relevant are keeping students’ discipline, relationship with more experienced colleagues, and the pedagogical organization of the curriculum content; f) beginning teachers not always manage to identify the contribution of the knowledge acquired in their initial education, and complain about an apparent distance between theory and practice; g) organizational atmosphere and the management team support in schools are other decisive elements in their permanence in the career; h) beginning teachers in higher education complain about the lack of pedagogical qualification or a welcoming program in the higher education institutions since many of them have an education trajectory in areas that are totally detached of education discussions and suddenly become teachers.

3 Finishing the text, but proposing the debate: what do we know? What has been found out? What is still to be noticed?

As pointed out at the beginning of this text, this is not state-of-the-art research, but rather a survey that sought to systematize certain production that had not been systematized yet, and from it recognize that it is possible to extract some conceptual boundaries for the theme. The four surveys previously cited organized their chronological cuts mostly from the 2000s onwards, while our study analyzed from the first defended dissertation onwards (even recognizing the difficult access to all dissertations and theses).

Seeking to collaborate with the debate, in addition to proposing the refinement of the terminology that might help to shape more precisely the research themes worked, some aspects should still be addressed. Regarding this issue, the question ‘what do we know?’ was answered with the presentation of the most frequent themes in this research area (which does not mean that all of them were included, but rather that we observed studies confirming certain results), namely, a) the reality shock, survival, and discovery feelings; b) teachers’ different types of knowledge and their relations with their different sources of origin; c) the relations between teachers’ initial education and the beginning of teaching period; d) beginning of teaching in children’s education, initial years of elementary school, and higher education; e) professional socialization, which marks an inverse logic when compared to other professions, for example, more complex classes are assigned to those with the least experience.

The converging point in these studies is the concern about characterizing this career initial period. In this sense, difficulties are emphasized in attempt to show, as observed by ^{Marcelo García (1999)} the intense learning, marked by attempts and errors, and developed in highly adverse contexts. At this point, we propose this reflection: is there a consensus and a recognition that this initiation period is something intense, adverse, lonely, and a real key test? Will future research be able to advance in new directions, raising other elements that go beyond the mere attempt to characterize this period? With this questioning, we do not intent to exhaust the theme since new aspects can always emerge, instead we point out that there are several studies confirming the elements found in the literature, thus, the theme must be challenged, inside the teachers’ education area, and produce advancement broadening views. In fact, it seems reasonable to state that we already know many features of the beginning of teaching period.

As regards the second question presented, ‘what has been found out?, two themes emerge strongly in this aspect: a) the contribution of mentorship programs and collaborative groups for the beginning teachers’ professional development process; and b) the relations between teaching induction programs such as the PIBID, for example. In this sense, it is relevant to mention that these two factors appear in a very productive manner to gather elements that might even collaborate with the definition of career insertion public policies. In other words, in addition to characterizing or denouncing that beginning teachers are abandoned, these themes have helped to optimize analyses that show the importance of different types of support for the construction of the teachers’ professional development.

The third questions ‘what is still to be noticed?’ is quite tricky. Our objective is not to produce a list of all themes to be investigated, since this is rather pretentious and even impossible (new themes and new references are always appearing). Our purpose is try to point out themes that have not been properly explored or are still silenced in the studies selected. Moreover, in relation to the previous question, the criterion adopted refers to the number of works, that is, there themes that have just appeared in the academic production, however they already appear in a significant number of works (PIBID, for example, appears as the central theme of over 10 studies).

However, other themes have been scarcely explored (only appearing in one or two studies, for example), which include: a) teaching initiation in contexts outside the formal regular schooling (e.g., youth and adult education); b) teaching initiation in high school; c) new professional restarts due to changes in level of teaching, school context, among others, which we named “professional initiation situations”; d) support programs for higher education teachers; e) beginning teachers’ work conditions; f) teaching work on ethnic/racial diversity (one dissertation addresses the beginning teachers work on the Law 10639/03); g) lack of research on the teachers’ first year of effective professional work; h) analysis of beginning teachers’ insertion municipal policies (extremely urgent, but still quite specific); i) beginning teachers’ work with cultural diversity.

Some themes still silenced in those articles were, for example: a) gender relations in the beginning of teaching period (is there any difference in the professional initiation of male and female teachers? Would the reality shock be the same in both sex groups?); b) beginning of teaching and social markers of difference (a double meaning is considered here: either because the professional initiation process addressing ethnic/racial and gender/sexuality themes as elements of the teachers’ identity remains silenced, or because an analysis of the teaching work on these themes is also still missing); c) as a consequence of the previous item, the idea of a beginning teacher as critical intellectual and transforming agent remains silenced; d) the aspects leading beginning teachers to abandon the profession; e) teachers’ absenteeism and general malaise from the beginning of their career; f) long-term studies following the teachers’ professional development (obviously, given the characteristics of postgraduate programs in Brazil, this type of research would only be possible in doctorate theses. However, this indication also regards the possibility that research projects going beyond the postgraduate logics might be developed).

The beginning of teaching period is an interesting theme with several aspects to be clarified and can collaborate with the creation of public policies aiming at supporting these professionals. The theme, in growing consolidation in the teachers’ education area, starts, even if discretely, to diversify its study objects. However, it still needs to broaden the epistemological standpoint, going beyond the epistemology of practice.