Teacher Stories and Experiences: Insights From English Teachers Across Multiple U.S. States

Session Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

In this session, we bring together five researchers studying the lived experiences of English teachers from the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast regions of the U.S. We will discuss significant findings that are common and unique in these regions among teachers who have from 1 to 50 years of teaching experiences as they taught in classrooms and learned in online spaces. Tyack and Cuban (1995) pointed out the paucity of research on the personal, embodied, and experiential knowledge that might be gained from the everyday experiences of teachers. Our aim is conversation around nuanced understandings of teaching and learning made possible in teacher narratives. Through dialogue among presenters and participants, we can elevate teachers’ stories as pivotal knowledge in educational research.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Lives of Teachers

Chair

• Michelle Zoss, Georgia State University

Papers

• Teaching School: English Teachers’ Classroom Experiences During Three Eras of Educational Reforms - Kelli Ann Sowerbrower, Georgia State University

• Is Teaching Worth It? Using Narrative Inquiry to Address the Value of Teaching - Tiffany Sedberry, Purdue University

• Studies in Critical Teacher Research: Teacher Voice and the Classroom - Taylor Norman, Purdue University

• Teaching as Embodied, Contextualized Practice: One Story of a Teacher in a Time of Cancer - Michelle Zoss, Georgia State University; Alisha White, Western Illinois University

• “It Made Me Better Here”: English Teachers’ Narratives of Professionally Oriented Participation Online - Luke Rodesiler, University of South Florida