Chapter 1: Recognizing Kierkegaard’s Existential Despair Within The Lives of Early-Career Teachers

In this article, I draw on Søren Kierkegaard’s definition of the self and concept of existential despair to argue that the tensions and dilemmas that early-career teachers experience are not only professional but also existential in nature. I support this argument by presenting three anecdotes from two early-career teachers gathered through the process of phenomenological inquiry. Within these moments of lived experience, the teachers recognized fundamental paradoxes within themselves and subsequently experienced what they described as an intense self-hatred. Implications for teacher education are discussed.