Teacher Identity Making, Shifting, and Resisting: The Case of Two Former Teach for America Corps Members

This article explores the development of teaching identity among Teach for America (TFA) corps members through the use of storied experience. Grounded in a conceptual framework of intersectional identities, specifically Gee's notions of institution-identity and affinity-identity, we consider the storied experiences of two former classroom teachers (referred to as teacher leavers) who entered the profession through the TFA alternative certification pathway. Although bothteacher leavers followed the TFA pathway into the classroom and ultimately left teaching, they constructed their identities in unique and at times opposing ways, with consequences for their ultimate career pathways. We consider issues of resistance and return in examining the implications of TFA's identity model on the teachers themselves and the larger teaching profession.
Introduction As teacher educators, we are often consumed by the goal of teacher identity development. Teacher identity, defined as one seeing one's self as a teacher, is of primary concern [...]