The telling stories of novice teachers: Constructing teacher knowledge in book clubs

This article reports on a teacher book club consisting of six novice teachers who met over a 2-year period beginning with their first entry into the profession to cultivate their teacher knowledge, identity, and development in a social/supportive context. The teachers met approximately every 6 weeks over the course of the academic year (7 times annually) to discuss a mutually selected (mostly fictional) text including some educational/school experiences (such as Plainsong, reported here). The book club context, texts, and other members became conduits for creating and telling teaching stories. I argue that self-directed teacher development in small teacher communities can begin at the onset of induction into the profession since such experiences appear to inform and shape teacher knowledge and development.