Figuring Out How To Be a Teacher in a High-Stakes Context: A Case Study of First-Year Teachers’ Conceptual and Practical Development

High-stakes education reforms across the United States and the globe continue to alter the landscape of teaching and teacher education. One key but understudied aspect of this reform process is the experiences of first-year teachers, particularly those who participated in these high-stakes education systems as students and as a teachers-in-training. This article employs Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain’s conception of figured worlds to understand how such reforms affected two first-year teachers’ conceptions of themselves as educators and what it is they were to teach their students. It concludes with suggestions for teacher–educators and mentors to help novice and preservice teachers succeed in these high-stakes contexts so that they can work toward becoming educators who attend to their students’ individual needs and teach them how to be active and reflective citizens.