This article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of five former English language teachers in Hong Kong during their initial years of full-time teaching and the reasons for their permanent departure from the profession. Guided by a theory of teacher identity construction, the study employed a discourse analytic approach to understand the participants’ perceptions of their professional identity construction in discourse and practice. The results of in-depth interviews provide detailed descriptions of the ways in which the former teachers perceived the constraints and enablements to their professional identity construction within the context of their ultimate decision to leave the teaching profession. The findings problematise rigid divisions between different types of teachers and suggest the need to establish new spaces for identity construction that allow for the meshing of different teacher identities.
[Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis.]

This editorial discusses the issues and experiences of beginning teachers. The experience of reality shock for beginning teachers can be profound, influencing feelings of belonging to the profession, capacity to teach effectively, and levels of teacher retention. This editorial of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (A-PJTE) brings together a themed collection of articles focussed on the experience of entering the field of teaching or teacher education for the first time. The range of emotional responses beginning teachers have in response to their early experiences in classrooms comes through clearly in this collection of papers, in particular the effect that access to appropriate support and mentoring for adjusting to life as a teacher has on the confidence of a beginning teacher. With research reported from Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education provides insight into what it is like to be a beginning teacher, and reminds readers that learning to belong and contribute to a profession can be a difficult journey.
Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2014.969415

This paper explores the self-appraisal of teacher commitment and their associated emotional experiences in the first 10 years of teaching among three generations of Hong Kong teachers. Findings affirm previous view that high commitment level of teachers is characterised with psychological attachment to the commitment objects. However the relationship between increased teacher commitment level, time investment in work and psychological attachment to teaching is found uncertain in the changing contexts, leading to the authors' conceptualisation of satisfied and dissatisfied commitment among teachers staying in the profession. Implications from the new understanding of teacher commitment are discussed.
[Copyright of Australian Journal of Teacher Education is the property of School of Education, Edith Cowan University. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2011v36n7.6]