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Teaching is a complex profession. Much of the work of teachers is hidden from view, happening behind the scenes. It is not until one becomes a teacher that they fully understand the complexities. Preparing teacher candidates before they enter their own classrooms for the potential tensions between their individual perspectives and educational contexts can support their development. This study explores the experiences of teacher candidates as they engage in reflection on and discussions about challenging scenarios they are likely to experience when they enter the profession. Through qualitative analysis of end-of-semester reflections, we identified salient themes including realization and assuredness related to the scenarios with which they were presented. Based on our findings, we share implications for teacher educators and school leaders to support novice teachers to recognize and take on the challenges they will undoubtedly experience. Creating productive spaces for teacher candidates to practice thoughtful adaptations may support novice teachers as they navigate tricky situations and may also impact teacher retention.

This collective case study examines how two teacher candidates' digital story projects created in literacy methods courses made visible their negotiated and evolving visions of teaching and learning. The digital stories were created to show and describe their future literacy classrooms. Using metaphoric analysis, the researchers uncovered the implicit metaphors of teachers and students present in each of the teacher candidates' digital stories. Looking across these metaphors, tensions and alignments between how the teacher candidates envisioned the role of teacher and the role of student and how these relate to prominent models of education including Industrial and Inquiry models are apparent. Implications for practice include modifications made to literacy methods courses to support teacher candidates to begin the negotiation of their professional identities as they explore multiple experiences of teaching and learning. These modifications include: (a) prompting teacher candidates to see themselves as readers, writers, and inquirers; (b) modeling and experiencing inquiry in teacher education coursework; and (c) providing opportunities for teacher candidates to experience purposeful tensions within their teacher education classes.

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.

This longitudinal qualitative inquiry delves into the experiences of three novice teachers in the United States. Over the first four years of their teaching career, participants were interviewed multiple times, during which they created artifacts to capture the complex and emotional aspects of their experiences. The researchers utilized thematic analysis and restorying to illuminate the participants' professional identity development and career trajectories. The findings underscore the realities of entering the teaching profession during a global teacher shortage and the tensions and vulnerability inherent in teacher identity development. The insights gleaned from these novice teachers provide fresh perspectives for educators, policymakers, and teacher educators to reimagine support systems to better sustain teachers in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]