STILL STANDING: NOVICE TEACHERS’ STORIES OF BECOMING AND RESILIENCE

Abstract

The problem of teacher retention is felt across the nation as growing vacancies plague schools across all content areas and grade levels. Examination of the problem of teacher retention through the stories of two novice teachers provides an in-depth look at teacher actions and the underlying discourses that shape and inform their practice. The study is foregrounded in a critical sociocultural framework and methods of thematic and nexus analysis provides a unique lens for understanding how novice teachers’ experiences are situated in local and global discourses and power relations. The study highlights and unpacks the discourses and related power dynamics underlying numerous themes that shape teacher identity and impact teachers’ capacities for navigating challenges. The study has implications for understanding novices’ actions that affect equity in language and literacy classrooms through taking actions that disrupt longstanding patterns of inequities. The study concludes that systems of support should consider that novices actively draw on assets while constructing identities that challenge assumptions about novice teachers and position novices as expert and passionate advocates for their students. Examination of the ways that teachers construct identities as novice teachers have the potential to disrupt inequities within school spaces and increase positive outcomes for students. Working with novice teachers to examine, unpack, and reflect on these dispositions has the potential to increase teacher retention and promote equitable practices within literacy and language spaces.