Professional identity formation among beginning teachers with significant physical or sensory disabilities

This study follows professional identity formation among beginning teachers with significant physical or sensory disabilities (PSD). Forming a positive professional identity can reduce the high attrition rate among all first-year teachers, including teachers with PSD. The study comprised 16 beginning teachers with PSD and three facilitators in Israel, who participated in an academic workshop specifically designed for this cohort of teachers as a Community of Practice. Audio recordings of the workshop’s meetings were thematically analysed. Upon entering the teaching profession, teachers with PSD encounter marginalisation and face challenges that undermine their professional identity. Four positive identity-forming processes were identified: 1) setting ambitious, yet attainable, long-term goals that changed throughout the year; 2) negotiating work conditions to overcome limitations; 3) choosing a student-centred educational approach and forming close, eye-level relations with students; 4) transforming disabilities into assets. Together, they form a distinctive trajectory of professional identity development. A Community of Practice specifically designed for beginning teachers with PSD may nurture these processes through facilitation by expert teacher educators, peer positioning as co-experts, and explicit focus on disability-specific challenges. However, comparative research is needed to determine the optimal forms of support that would retain these much-needed teachers in the education system.