Abstract
In France, at the beginning of the 2013 school year, the introduction of the “Plus de maîtres que de classes” device in primary schools with a majority of pupils with learning difficulties has been a pedagogical innovation. Supernumerary teachers may be appointed in schools to support their colleagues in the classroom. Through an ethnographic inquiry with three supernumerary teachers, this paper seeks to understand what motivates them to take on this new role and how they perform it. Based on concepts of professional transition and transaction, these three supernumerary teachers’ profiles in their first two years of activity show professional transitions that have been experienced in different ways. The results highlight the desire for professional mobility at a time when the teacher’s career is under question. They also point out that the implementation of three types of identity strategy leads to relational transactions with contrasting outcomes.