Teaching out-of-field: Primary school teachers stepping into early childhood education and care

In response to a nationwide shortage of early childhood education and care educators in Croatia, many qualified primary school teachers have transitioned into early childhood education and care settings without formal preparation for work with young children. To address this gap, Croatia introduced its first university-level re-qualification program, aiming to support primary school teachers in acquiring the pedagogical and developmental competencies required in early years education. This study explores how primary school teachers experience this professional transition, the impact of the re-qualification program on their professional development, and the challenges they encounter. Grounded in Vygotsky' s socio-constructivist theory which emphasizes learning through social interaction and cultural context, the study employed an exploratory qualitative research design. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit eleven qualified primary school teachers who had already been employed in early childhood education and care settings as out-of-field educators and were enrolled in Croatia's first university re-qualification programme. Data were collected during the summer of 2025 through a researcher-developed structured written interviews consisting of open-ended questions designed to explore participants' professional experiences and reflections. Data were analysed using a hybrid thematic analysis combining deductive and inductive coding, following the thematic analysis procedures proposed by Braun and Clarke. Findings indicate that participants' transitions into early childhood education and care were shaped by interconnected structural, pedagogical and identity-related factors. While employment security emerged as the dominant motivation for entering the sector, participants also described significant pedagogical adaptation, ongoing identity negotiation and uncertainty regarding long-term professional positioning. The findings suggest that out-of-field transitions into early childhood education and care are not merely questions of workforce redistribution or qualification mismatch, but complex socio-professional processes involving pedagogical transformation, identity reconstruction, and structurally conditioned career mobility. As Croatia continues to address workforce shortages in early childhood education and care, aligning policy, institutional support and professional development will be essential for sustaining a qualified, reflective, and stable workforce capable of responding to the developmental, contextual and relational needs of young children.