Returning to the Elementary Classroom

Reflections from a Sabbatical Spent Co-Teaching with a First-Year Teacher

Abstract

This self-study uses currere as method and analytic lens to examine my return to the elementary classroom during a semester-long sabbatical spent co-teaching with a first-year teacher. After more than a decade in higher education, I entered the classroom carrying commitments to equity, care, and humanizing pedagogy shaped by my teaching past and teacher education work. Across regressive, progressive, analytical, and synthetical moments, I trace how these commitments were tested and reassembled through lived classroom encounters marked by shifting roles, institutional constraints, and ethical uncertainty. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions, this inquiry foregrounds the importance of presence, relational work, and grappling with discomfort in teacher preparation. The study contributes to curriculum studies by positioning return—not resolution—as central to ethical teaching and teacher education practice.