11: The Cotyledon State of Teacher Identity: A Narrative of ONE Pre-service TEACHER of Color

With beginning teachers leaving teaching as a career in droves within five years of being certified, unpacking initial field placement experiences of pre-service teachers (PSTs) is critically important in understanding the emergence of their identities or as expressed in narrative terms, “stories to live by.” This research employs narrative inquiry—that is, it uses narrative as a research method to study people’s storied experiences—to delve into how one PST, Kekoa, made sense of and formed his professional identity. As a PST during an initial field placement at an alternate and discipline alternative education placement (DEAP) in Texas, his story offers a rich and varied tapestry of teaching, and the milieu of alternative education. Cumulatively, this research reveals what could potentially be done to reduce beginning teacher attrition and to retain and sustain teachers in ways that positively develop their identities—their “stories to live by”—and helps ameliorate their “stories to leave by,” which constitutes an escalating national and international phenomenon. The findings shine a spotlight on a distinct phase of teacher preparation during PSTs’ initial field placement experience. PSTs in this phase are termed cotyledon teachers.