VietTESOL International Convention 2026

The first year of teaching is widely recognised as an emotionally intensive period in which novice teachers confront the gap between their initial education and the realities of the classroom. Yet how much of this emotional experience is shaped by context rather than by individual disposition remains underexplored, particularly in Vietnam, where cultural norms of harmony and face-saving influence how teachers interpret and regulate their emotions. As the country pursues its roadmap toward an ESL future, sustaining the wellbeing of early-career teachers becomes central to teacher professional development. Drawing on a three-stage model of first-year teacher development and the concept of praxis shock, this narrative case study examines the emotions of three teachers who have just completed their first year of teaching English and who share a common educational background—graduates of the same English teacher education program at a public university in Central Vietnam—but who taught at three high schools with markedly different institutional contexts. The study addresses two questions: what emotions did the teachers experience during their first year, and what professional development needs do these emotionally intensive situations reflect? Data was collected through retrospective semi-structured interviews and reflective accounts participants produced during the year, then analysed using six-step thematic analysis, with member checking to enhance trustworthiness. By holding pre-service education and school level constant while varying institutional context, the design isolates context as the key variable shaping teachers' emotional trajectories and support needs. The study anticipates culturally situated insights into need-oriented induction and mentoring.