Early-career teachers constitute a strategic group for understanding the dynamics of professional adaptation to teaching and the teaching profession, as the first years of practice represent a critical period both for consolidating commitment to the profession and for decisions regarding long-term retention. This stage is characterised by a transition process between initial teacher education and professional practice, often described as a confrontation between idealised expectations and the complexity of everyday school life. Entering the profession therefore involves a gradual adjustment to multiple dimensions of teaching work, combining motivational processes with high pedagogical, relational, and organisational demands.

During the early years of their careers, teachers face challenges related to classroom management, the need for pedagogical differentiation, student assessment, and the fulfilment of administrative responsibilities, often within a context marked by unstable contractual arrangements, geographical mobility, and integration into already established organisational cultures. These conditions tend to increase vulnerability to stress and negatively affect indicators of well-being and professional effectiveness (Bottiani et al., 2019; Herman et al., 2020). Furthermore, organisational turnover during this initial career phase has systemic implications, affecting the stability of educational teams and reinforcing the importance of investigating factors associated with the adaptation and retention of early-career teachers.

The analysis of these teachers’ working conditions and professional contexts can benefit from theoretical frameworks that integrate both risk and protective factors, such as the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti et al., 2001). This model provides an analytical framework that distinguishes between job demands and available resources. Job demands refer to physical, psychological, social, or organisational aspects of work that require sustained effort and, when excessive, are associated with psychophysiological costs such as exhaustion and burnout. In contrast, job resources encompass elements that facilitate goal attainment, mitigate the impact of demands, and promote well-being and professional adaptation.

It is also important to consider personal resources that function as protective factors in demanding work environments. At the macro-systemic level, the concept of decent work (Ferraro, 2018) may further enrich this analysis by incorporating perceptions of the structural dimensions of working conditions. The integration of the JD-R model with the decent work approach enables a holistic understanding of the psychosocial and structural dynamics that shape professional experiences during the early years of teaching.

By simultaneously considering organisational demands and resources, personal resources, and perceptions of the structural conditions of work, it becomes possible to understand the relative contribution of each of these factors and their impact on the mechanisms underlying well-being, work engagement, and intentions to remain in the profession. Such knowledge may contribute to the implementation of organisational practices that support more stable and satisfying professional trajectories for early-career teachers, while also fostering the generational renewal and sustainability of the educational system.