Negotiating Racialized Identity Trajectories of Novice Teachers of Color

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating the Lives of Teachers Across Contexts: Organizational Commitments and Cross-Case Analyses (Table 3)

Abstract

Teachers of Color bring an identity into their classrooms that has not always been honored in a system historically instantiated with issues of racism and power. To understand how novice teachers of color navigate the supports and tensions in their new schools, this study used data from a focus group, semi-structured interviews, and observations to highlight the ways that novice teachers of Color draw on their racialized histories and identities to (re)negotiate who they are in their complex teaching environments. Findings showed that the participants’ experiences with school structures and administration shaped the ways in which they positioned themselves and shifted the trajectories of their racialized identities in relation to others, the resources, and the practices within their contexts.

Author

• Nathanie A. Lee, University of Washington - Bothell