Unpacking Urban Teaching Residents’ Mental Constructs: Supporting the Professional Identity Development of Teachers of Color

When teachers of color professionalize their teaching, they encounter tensions between their personal and professional identities, causing dissonances. This study examined 36 teaching residents of color and their professional identity development in one northeastern urban teacher residency (UTR) program in the United States. We used narrative research to explore how participants constructed themselves as teachers in their stories. We analyzed program archival data through the lens of perezhivanie , a mental model that individuals establish to resolve dissonances. Narrative analyses of admissions essays, interviews, journals, and autobiographies revealed that participants’ personal histories inform their equity pedagogy. Specifically, participants constructed their own professional identities in the UTR program via cultural filters shaped by their life experiences being historically minoritized, particularly to (a) develop their teacher-selves to construct practical knowledge and (b) transform their personal-selves to foster equity pedagogy. The implications for supporting the professional identity development of teachers of color are discussed.