Open AccessStories of Sustaining: A Narrative Inquiry Into the Experiences of Two Beginning Teachers
Author(s) -
Lee Schaefer,
D. Jean Clandinin
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
learning landscapes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1913-5688
DOI - 10.36510/learnland.v4i2.400
Subject(s) - attrition , narrative , identity (music) , narrative inquiry , pedagogy , psychology , lived experience , mathematics education , sociology , aesthetics , art , literature , psychoanalysis , medicine , dentistry
Attending to early career teacher attrition as a problem of identity shaping and shifting enabled this narrative inquiry into two beginning teachers’ experiences. We first created a fictionalized survey to show how their experiences could fit neatly into the dominant narratives of early career attrition. We then composed narrative accounts to show each participant’s uniqueness. Seeing beginning teacher attrition through this lens allowed us to become attentive to sustaining moments in these teachers’ lives.