The early years of a teacher’s career are often challenging as they try to navigate their way around the new role as teachers. More so, early career teachers in South Africa are particularly battling as the conceptualisation and implementation of structured induction programmes seem far from realisation. This study explores the early career journeys of four secondary school teachers in the Free State with the view to understand their lived experiences as well as draw insights on how best to support early career teachers’ professional learning and development in South Africa.

Hence, the questions that guide this study are:
(1) what are early career teacher’s lived mentorship experiences?
(2) how are early career teachers’ lived mentorship experiences significant in informing mentorship and professional development programmes in South Africa?

We deployed Geert Keltchermans’ (1993) narrative-biographical perspective as a lens through which to unravel early career teachers’ lived experiences as well as to understand the significance of those experiences for their professional learning and development. Data was drawn from analyses of narrative reflections and individual semi-structured interviews with four secondary school early career teachers in the Free State. The data suggests that: Early career teachers had romanticised ideas about working in the school environment and have since espied to the realities of the school workplace where senior colleagues were reluctant to undertake the expected mentorship role. Despite this, early career teachers seem to be strongly committed to the teaching profession as well as have a sense of duty and care towards the learners. To present schools as functional spaces conducive for early career teachers learning and professional development, we, thus, argue for deliberate establishment and continuous development of mentorship relationships between senior teachers and early career teachers.

Keywords: Early career teachers, narratives, lived experiences, professional learning and development.