Teachers Who Don't Teach: Imagined Stories and Identities Outside the Classroom

• In Event: 51.081 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Nine - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 51.081-8 - Stories of Teacher Identity Formation

Abstract

This narrative inquiry is part of a larger study of teacher attrition, but this study inquires into experiences of teachers who graduated but did not assume classroom teaching positions. The work draws on the conceptual framework of early landscapes, imagined stories, forward looking stories, and stories to live by. The study highlights the importance of composing imagined stories, experiences when imagined stories are interrupted, and developing forward looking stories congruent with imagined stories to live by. The study illuminates how forward looking stories are composed after the imagined story of teaching is interrupted drawing attention to a population often silent in the literature. The study reveals the enduring power of the imagined story of becoming and being a teacher.

Author

• Eliza Anne Pinnegar, Daniels Canyon Elementary School