Chapter 8: The Gordian knot of Teacher Induction: When Context Trumps Teacher Preparation and the Desire to Teach

The above passage is the off-the-cuff description of how Cheryl Craig characterized our chapter contribution when this volume on secondary teacher induction in the United States was initially conceptualized at a faculty academy meeting. In this work, we pick up on the Gordian knot—a confounding knot that cannot easily be undone—and use it to unpack the induction experiences of 33-year old Jason Carter, a beginning physics teacher who was prepared in the groundbreaking teachHOUSTON teacher education program sponsored in part by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Noyce grant. We begin our investigation by presenting our literature review and research method. After that, we introduce NSF, teachHOUSTON, Jason Carter and ourselves. We then present Jason’s stories of experience (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) as he transitioned from being a teacher education student to becoming an induction year teacher. As we disentangle storied knots in Jason’s narrative tellings, we uncover complexities associated with urban secondary teacher induction.