Meeting the challenge: Beginning English teachers reflect on their first year

Shoffner, M. & Brown, M. & Platt, B. & Long, M. & Salyer, B. (2010). Meeting the challenge: Beginning English teachers reflect on their first year. English Journal, 99(6), 70-77.

The heart of this article is essays by four first-year secondary English teachers. They each describe a major conflict that arose during their first year, and how reflection helped them cope with that conflict. Bridget struggled with building relationships with colleagues. Matt struggled with a cultural mismatch between himself and his students. Martha struggled with her students' lack of prior knowledge, both in general and in regard to technology. Bryan struggled with the conflict between his own idealistic view of teaching and his school's requirement to implement a certain kind of curriculum. Each of these is a weighty issue, even for an experienced teacher. These four reflected mostly through writing and some peer discussion, and mostly when things were not going well.

I found I wanted to know more about the context that generated this article, and much more about Melanie, the teacher educator (and former secondary English teacher) who is the article's first author. She creates a sketchy frame for these four poignant stories, but we know nothing much about how she makes sense of it all.