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In this chapter, we describe Ian’s initial teaching experiences at City High School, where he cotaught a physics class a fellow preservice teacher. Ian’s student teaching experience can be visualized as the first field, or social space, to be analyzed in his trajectory from student in a teacher education program to second-year teacher.

One of the ways that Ian sought to change his role as a teacher was by restruc turing the classroom to better suit his students’ needs and interests. As we detailed in chapter two, Ian began to restructure the engineering physics classroom primarily by listening to students, building trusting, respectful relationships, and by infusing the curriculum with project-based, hands-on learning opportunities. Throughout his student teaching experience, Ian continued to reflect on the notion of respect and the ways his students at City High were often disrespected at school.

After finishing a graduate-level teacher preparation program and receiving his state certification in physics and math, Ian was ready to start working. His success in student teaching was affirmed by the summer curriculum development project; during the eight-week experience he had opportunity to develop science curriculum with students from City High School. Ian was eager to get into the classroom and apply what he had learned. However, he found that attaining a teaching position in the School District of Philadelphia was more involved than he had imagined. Delays, disorganization, and miscommunication almost caused him to give up his aspirations of working in the district.

The first year of teaching can be intimidating and overwhelming regardless of the quality of one’s teacher preparation. Luckily, Ian had experienced several rich transitions into teaching, such as the coteaching experience and the curriculum development project, which we described in previous chapters. This chapter aims to describe Ian’s first year as a full-time teacher and bring to light some of the challenges he faced given the structural changes he encountered at an urban school that was highly distinct from City High, where he had done his student teaching. We also elucidate the ways in which Ian was able to find success during his first year of teaching by restructuring the classroom to meet his needs, by building trusting relationships with students that bridged differences and by infusing science teaching methods and activities in his math class.

After a full year of teaching only mathematics at Leach Learning Academy, Ian packed up his classroom materials and prepared to wait. Similar to the situation he had encountered close to a year ago, Ian was forced to wait to hear where in the school district he would be placed. Because of his friendships with Jack, who had taken a position back at City High School, and Mister Reyes, the coordinator for the science, engineering, math, and motivation small learning community, he had hoped to get a position at City High School teaching physics and math, and possibly expanding on the engineering courses they had begun offering during his student teaching.

Throughout the chapters in this book, we have described Ian’s more prominent classroom practices, such as building relationships with students, using creative, science-based activities in mathematics, and working with students individually. In this final chapter, we return to the broad research questions we outlined in chapter one. Although we have discussed findings for the more narrow, field-specific questions in chapters two through seven, in this chapter we look at the findings across fields. Using the structure/agency dialectic, we review the pat-terns longitudinally using a macroperspective. We elaborate on themes within the bigger picture by looking across the smaller, mesolevel findings illustrated in previous chapters. Additionally, we evaluate the study using Guba and Lincoln’s (1989) authenticity criteria. We conclude with implications for teacher educators and policymakers in urban districts.