This study is part of RISE Programme in Indonesia, a large scale, multi-country research program that seeks to understand how school systems in the developing world can overcome the learning crisis and deliver better learning for all. The study is one of the components in the Reform Area A that evaluates policies of pilot programs related to teachers and teaching, especially on improving student learning outcomes.

Teachers are key actors in the provision of educational services. This study seeks to explore the real stories of young Indonesian teachers in their first years as a teacher: what drove them to become a teacher, what they had to do to get a job as a teacher, what their first experience in teaching was like, and what other experiences they have during their time of being a teacher.

In his study on the problems faced by young or beginning teachers, Veenman (1984) found that the transition from teacher training to first teaching job might have a dramatic and traumatic impression. Hitherto, there has never been a study in Indonesia that examines the development of teachers from their perspective. RISE aims at capturing the experience of young teachers from their perspective in the Stories of Beginning Teachers in Their First Years of Being Teachers.