Negotiating Institutional Discourses: Critical Narrative Analysis of a Novice, Equity-Oriented Teacher’s Experiences

• In Event: Disrupting the Status Quo in Middle-Grades Education: Strategies to Mediate and Create Change

Abstract

School discourses are often grounded in white supremacist structures normalized through traditional schooling practices that, if left untroubled, become hegemonic. Novice, equity-oriented teachers are confronted with dilemmas, both ethical and moral, that they must navigate as their preservice and professional worlds collide. A deeper understanding of what teachers deem critical in their setting and how they negotiate those discourses can offer insights as to how to talk back to hegemonic discourses. Grounded in Freirean notions of education, this paper features a case study of a novice teacher as she negotiates institutional discourses in her school context.

Author

• Susan Y. Leonard, University of Georgia