“I Didn’t Realize How Hard It Would Be!”: Tensions and Transformations in Becoming a Teacher
Abstract
This study explores the experience of becoming an elementary teacher in an educational climate where standardization and accountability increasingly affect what happens in classrooms across the country by following two beginning teachers. Specifically, this longitudinal study in which two first-year teachers’ stories are analyzed and restoried explores the tensions involved in becoming a teacher. This research, which focuses on the transition from student to teacher, illuminates the multiple discourses beginning teachers must negotiate as they determine the kind of teacher they will become. Based on the findings, recommendations are provided for how teacher education programs can better prepare beginning teachers, particularly those operating in reductive classrooms and forced to implement standardized curriculum. These implications for practice include (1) encouraging preservice teachers to be thoughtfully adaptive by creating and revising clear visions, (2) consciously creating zones of contact in which preservice teachers gain practical experience navigating competing discourses, and (3) critically examining field placements for preservice teachers.
Reference
Sydnor, J. (2017). “I didn’t realize how hard it would be!”: Tensions and transformations in becoming a teacher. Action in Teacher Education, 39(2), 218-236.
Journal
Action in Teacher Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- Elementary school
- field placements (not related to methods courses)
Preservice Participants
- undergraduate preservice teachers
Preservice Sample Size
2
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- fieldnotes
- Interviews
- Video
Data Analysis Tools
- Content analysis
- narrative analysis (Labov)
- restorying (Reissman, 2008)
- Thematic analysis
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
Research Questions
What are the tensions involved in becoming a teacher?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
How do beginning teachers negotiate and navigate these tensions as they determine what kind of teacher they will become?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes