Abstract
These words from Cathy, a second-year teacher, highlight the importance of understanding the role of vision and teacher identity as new teachers negotiate their early years of teaching. This chapter examines a number of dilemmas that four teachers experienced as they began their teaching career in urban schools in the United States. The dilemmas occurred at the intersection of vision and context—when the visions they had of themselves as teachers and their professional aspirations for the future were not supported by the realities of the classroom, school and districts contexts within which they worked. The chapter examines the ways in which these teachers negotiated the dilemmas in order to sustain their personal and professional identities and discusses implications for pre-service teacher education.
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- 1.
All names are pseudonyms.
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Mayer, D. (2011). “But That’s the Thing; Who Else Is Going to Teach Besides the Idealist?” Learning to Teach in Emotional Contexts. In: Day, C., Lee, JK. (eds) New Understandings of Teacher's Work. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 100. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0545-6_9
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