A novice teacher’s identities – from losing her balance to regaining her confidence

Novice mathematics teachers often find the initial years of classroom teaching demanding. In this paper, we follow a novice teacher, Laura, the first 18 months of her teaching career and investigate the development of her professional identities from a participatory perspective. Laura’s case is interesting as her identities change dramatically, due to her participation in an induction programme and to a change of school. Our analysis shows that she loses her professional balance and almost leaves the profession during the first year, and that she regains her professional confidence and even coaches her colleagues on reform-oriented teaching in the second year. We argue that our participatory approach helps explain Laura’s identity trajectory. © 2023, Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME). All rights reserved.