Institutional Conditions for the Formation of Young Teachers’ the Professional Identity in a Large Russian City as Judged by Experts

Objective of the study is to assess the institutional opportunities and barriers to the formation of professional identity of young teachers working in municipal schools of large Russian cities. The methodological basis of the research is the constructivist approach of P. Berger and T. Lukman and the «soft concept» of identity that has developed within its framework (R. Brubaker, F. Cooper), which allow the author to consider professional identity not as a stable core of the I-concept that persists from beginning to end, despite external vicissitudes, but as something mobile, formed under the influence of various factors and is constantly changing depending on the context. The empirical basis of the study was the results of an applied sociological study conducted by the author of the article in 2021 (the method of collecting information is an expert interview). Research results. Based on expert assessments of the factors of formation of the professional identity of young teachers that have developed in the institutional environment of a modern municipal school in a large Russian city, the shortcomings of existing tools for integrating young specialists into the field of professional activity in large Russian cities are identified and the need for reorientation of state policy on attracting young specialists to schools from spontaneous point solutions to individual problems to building a long-term trajectory of development of young teachers in the field of professional activity. In addition, the institutional factors of deformation of the professional identity of young teachers are identified, which experts attribute to low wages, excessive bureaucratization of education, the lack of state housing programs for young teachers working in schools in large Russian cities.  Prospects of the study. The obtained expert assessments of the institutional factors of the formation and deformation of the professional identity of young teachers can be used in the future when studying the institutional features of the formation of the professional identity of representatives of other socio-professional subgroups of the teaching community.