Living the stories we tell: The sociopolitical context of enacting teaching stories

- Narrative theories and discourse analysis methods used to unpack teachers' narratives.
- Contradictions between the stories teachers told about teaching and the stories they enacted.
- Contradictions were examined within sociopolitical/historical contexts of practice.
- Few opportunities for teachers to construct sophisticated narratives about teaching.
- Guiding principles for supporting teachers' growth through construction of complex narratives.

This article draws from two separate classroom-based studies of early career teachers that yielded overlapping findings about the diminished opportunities teachers and teacher educators have to construct sophisticated stories about the complexities of classroom life and the ongoing process of learning to teach. The teachers' stories represent the intersection of research, policy, and practice, illuminating contradictions between teachers' beliefs about teaching and what they were able to enact in their classrooms. These findings may be leveraged to support teacher educators to support teachers to create coherent narrative identities that help them creatively respond to problems of practice and contextual constraints.