From urban student to urban educator: A narrative of the lived experiences of urban middle school teachers in a southeastern school district

The purpose of this narrative study was to explore the thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of 12 urban middle school teachers who were once urban middle school students. The study sought to discover reasons why these teachers returned to urban middle schools to teach and why they decided to stay.;A qualitative methodology, using the narrative design, was chosen for this study and interviews were conducted in order to obtain quality retellings of authentic experiences. The researcher sought to gain an understanding of life in the urban middle school environment. Purposeful sampling was used to select the 12 participants. The interviews with the 12 participants were recorded and transcribed. Six themes and three subthemes perceived by the participants as having an impact on why they return and stay in urban environments were developed from these interviews.;The identified themes were (a) caring, (b) motivation, (c) mentors, (d) opportunity, (e) relationships, and (f) commitment. The identified subthemes were (a) observations, (b) hope, and (c) parental involvement.;Conclusions drawn from this study should contribute to the advancement of recruiting and retaining quality urban middle school teachers. A question raised for additional research focused on urban school districts ability to motivate urban students to seek careers in urban education after graduation.