ABSTRACT In recent decades, there have been policy changes affecting School-Age Educare (SAE) teachers in Sweden. Today, SAE teachers must be aware of the historical underpinnings, educational policy aims, and a ‘new’ undergraduate teacher education program. The aim of the present article is to explore in what way SAE teachers, graduated from the basic teacher program in 2020, describe their professional roles and experiences, during their first year in school practice. In order to analyze how SAE teachers experience structural tensions in school practice, Merton’s [(1976). Sociological ambivalence and other essays. The Free Press] concept of sociological ambivalence will be employed. The findings show examples of the ambivalent positions for SAE teachers within the school organization as well as outside schools. Consequently, the ambivalent positions for SAE teachers, along with the reform aim to transform the ‘traditional’ SAE teacher into ideas focusing on compulsory school teaching need attention when it comes to recruiting SAE teachers for future practice.