Contending with contradictions: New teachers attempting teacher research

"Contending with Contradictions: New Teachers Attempting Teacher Research" explores what happens when new teachers attempt teacher research in their classrooms. There are two components to this study: (1) an interview study of three female teachers, all in their first three years of teaching and, (2) an investigation into the initial shifts in the researcher's theoretical perspective from critical pedagogy to feminist poststructuralism. This dissertation examines the experiences of these three women as they navigate through the complex and contradictory discourses of the structures of schooling as well as the researcher's own theoretical and methodological assumptions.; After facilitating a student teaching seminar on teacher research, the author followed three former student teachers into their first years of teaching and interviewed them about their attempts at using teacher research in their own classrooms. Despite the preparation and desire to do so, the three teachers were not researching their teaching in the ways they and the author had expected. Instead, these new teachers described the contradictions in their teaching settings that prevented them from researching their teaching. They described contradictions in (1) demands placed on them by their administrators, (2) fitting in with school cultures, and (3) support structures.; Through this research, the author reconsiders not only her approach to teaching the student teaching seminar, but also the goals of education programs and initial teacher indoctrination processes. While the author still considers teacher research an important component to initial teacher education programs, she suggests the focus should be on allowing student teachers to grapple with their own constructions of identities, as well as to challenge the discourses and contradictions in schooling structures. The author invites further inquiry into the use of teacher research in both pre-service and in-service teacher education as a way of challenging the discourses of schooling as well as of teacher research and teacher education.