Forming and transforming the teaching self in different institutional environments: Two teachers' experiences

Academic professionals recognize that the educational context affects stude nts' experiences and achievements. Indeed, teachers manipulate the learning environment in order to facilitate particular learning outcomes. However, instructors may not realize the extent to which the institutional context a nd learning environment affect their identity and pedagogy as teachers. Usi ng our experiences as two very similar instructors with nearly identical tr aining currently teaching in very different institutional contexts (a large Midwestern Research I institution and a small West coast experimental teac hing college), we suggest that an instructor's "teaching self" evolves and is shaped by the cultural and institutional environment in which she teache s. We end with a call for more systematic research on the effects that inst itutions have on teachers' identities.