This study explored the relationship between a teacher's sense of self and the curriculum they plan and enact. The purpose of the study was to understand the degree to which teachers' identities, memories of learning history, and perceptions of their curriculum, academic discipline, and students allowed them to implicate themselves in or distance themselves from the process of curricular translation, wherein teachers make choices about what and how to teach. This study is interested in exploring the various discourses teachers use in that process and in the construction of their own identities, as well as complicating the understanding of the connection between self and curriculum. This qualitative study is focused on the curricular work of three high school American history teachers. Semi-structured, active interviews and classroom observations were used to collect data over the span of two instructional units during the 2017-2018 academic year. A poststructural lens was used to analyze data and explore the discourses that participants used in planning, enacting, and reflecting on their teaching. Where as much of the research base is focused on teacher identity formation in preservice teachers or the impact of teachers' conceptions of what they teach on their practice, the findings of this study suggest that teachers implicate their sense of self in the curriculum in multiple, nuanced ways. Findings indicate that practicing teachers' identities both construct and are constructed by the curricular choices they make based on uncertainties they feel about elements of their own identities as well as the discourses they adopt to think about their curriculum and discipline. Findings also indicate that teachers use their own memories as learners to justify their present-day classroom practices. This study demonstrates that there is much to be gained in understanding how elements of a teacher's identity, related to socio-cultural aspects such as race, gender, and social class, as well as the memories and perceptions they have about history education, are related to and are constructed by their curricular decision-making.
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