One English Language Arts Teacher’s Journey as a Secondary Teacher-Mentor: Life in the Hyphen

Abstract

This article shares the results of a case study that explored Annie’s socially situated identity as a secondary English Language Arts teacher-mentor over 5 years at an urban school. Annie’s identities as a teacher-mentor occupied the space of the hyphen—sometimes a teacher, sometimes a mentor, sometimes both. Using discourse analysis, we describe how Annie positioned herself and was positioned as a mentor and a teacher. We explore Annie’s transformations informed by figured worlds associated with the Discourses of Mentor and Teacher at College Prep. Annie’s teacher-mentor identity shifted, evolved, and overlapped in this space as she interacted at College Prep and was influenced by institutional and societal Discourses, including students’ home Discourses. The study points to the need for more and perhaps different kinds of support for mentor-teacher/teacher-mentors who work in urban school environments to prepare them to negotiate potential conflicts in their identities.