Navigating job demands and resources: a process model of workplace learning and engagement among early career teachers

Purpose This study aims to adopt a processual perspective to examine how early career teachers manage job demands and use organisational resources in a learning-intensive environment, exploring how work, learning and engagement manifest in their daily activities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative, abductive design was used based on 15 semi-structured interviews with early career teachers in a UK Academy Trust. Data were analysed using an iterative thematic approach, combining data-led coding with later-stage theoretical engagement with the job demands–resources (JD–R) framework and workplace-learning perspectives. Findings The analysis identified recurring patterns through which the teachers’ interpreted demands, engaged with organisational cues and reworked the available sources of guidance. Participants consistently understood the demands, and organisational resources were used based on their specific features and their availability. When feedback and organisational signals were limited, teachers engaged in resource substitution, a set of situated practices in which they assembled provisional reference points from alternative guidance sources, including peer interactions, task-related cues and reflections. Originality/value This study contributes a processual account of how demands and resources are used in practice, complementing the established variance-oriented approaches in JD–R literature. By bringing JD–R into dialogue with workplace learning research, this study proposes resource substitution as a contextually situated practice in early career settings.