Under construction: An autoethnogrpahic study of a novice teacher and her professor

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2014-12
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Abstract

Through this autoethnographic study, I sought to better understand how a novice teacher’s life experiences, both past and present, informed her teaching practices in a culturally and linguistically diverse classroom and how this information could be used to inform teacher education practices. Knowing that there is a demographic mismatch between White, largely middle class teachers and diverse, lower socioeconomic school children (Grioux & Silva, 2010), I expected the novice teacher in the study to wrestle with meeting the needs of her culturally diverse students. However, the findings of this study suggest that the culture the novice teacher struggled with the most was the veteran oriented culture of the school community. Additionally, as a female educator who teaches mostly female students (Hollins & Guzman, 2005), I explored how my life narrative intersected and interacted with the life narrative of my former student and how the sharing of our narratives impacted our personal and professional lives. Utilizing reflexive journals, interactive interviews and observations, I sought to understand how female educators write the story of their professional identity.

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Keywords
Autoethnography, Novice teachers
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