Learning To Teach In Troubling Times: A Critical Narrative Analysis Exploring Becoming A Teacher Amidst A Global Pandemic

This study examines the process of becoming a teacher during the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the ways in which the participants navigated ever-changing expectations set before them as both student teachers and first-year teachers. Employing the use of Critical Narrative Analysis and through the lens of critical theory, this study explores how the state-mandated Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) impacted the participants’ student-teaching experience, as well as the ways this assessment created various roadblocks to their becoming a teacher. This longitudinal study also explores the ways that the participants’ experiences as first-year teachers were complicated by the global pandemic. This study is heavily influenced by Greene’s (2007) concept of becoming, acknowledging that as we learn we continually reinvent ourselves and become something new. The voices of the participants are privileged throughout the analysis of the data, which was collected through journals and semi-structured interviews. Implications of this work include suggestions for educator preparation programs (EPPs), districts and schools working with beginning teachers, as well as departments of education that utilize edTPA as a part of their initial teacher licensure.