Teaching has been described as a satisfying but stressful career. Discourses on teacher productivity, retention, and well-being have endured in demand-and-supply research studies. The literature on teacher socialization reveals that induction and mentorship are significant for the retention, well-being, and productivity of newly qualified teachers, and teaching in rural, remote schools presents a particular challenge of isolation for teachers. Despite teacher shortages in the Global South, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of newly qualified teachers and their isolation in rural, remote locations. This chapter presents a discussion on newly qualified geography teachers’ (NQGTs) experiences of professional isolation in one rural, remote location in South Africa, and we unpack how they navigate and develop in such contexts. Insights on newly qualified teachers’ socialization and the apartheid legacy of rural South African schools and teacher recruitment and retention post-apartheid provide the theoretical and contextual architecture. The study was a qualitative, phenomenological case study of NQGTs employed in rural, remote secondary schools in one low socioeconomic district, Malungisa, in South Africa. The data was thematically analyzed. Ten NQGTs who had between 1 and 5 years of work experience within the Malungisa District of the Eastern Cape (EC) were purposefully sampled. The findings revealed that the South African NQGTs had expectations of mentorship in their discipline and anticipated being inducted into their specific rural, remote teaching context as part of their socialization into the profession. However, they experienced the sudden harsh reality of professional isolation coupled with poor mentorship, which affected their well-being. It led them to harness alternative ways to develop professionally. This prompted some NQGTs to develop satisficing maladaptive pedagogical strategies to ease their feelings of inadequacy as new geography teachers. A key implication of this study on teachers’ well-being and productivity, deriving from how newly qualified teachers can adapt/maladapt, is that there needs to be consistent in-service training in rural, remote schools and adequate support in the form of induction and mentorship at the beginning of their career.