The teaching/learning process needs to be grounded in the relationships between the teacher and the students.The academic work needs to connect with the students’ lived realities and these relationships. His focus on the ‘new people that arrive on a daily basis,’this exploratory study suggest a sense of loss regarding the individualized approach, strong relationships with students, and ability to make curricular decisions that defined their earlier years in the classroom. Analysis of the teachers’ narratives demonstrated deep concern over the shifting relationships with students, fellow teachers, and administrators, qualities that had been hallmarks of the education movement, the participants no longer feel that they can know their students, and their students’ academic and social growth is not reflected in the complex metrics and evaluations measuring learning. Analysis also revealed frustration that greater trust is placed in ever-changing curricula than educators’ professional expertise, and that time for collaboration is no longer prioritized. In essence, agency is reduced to compliance with mandated-from-above curricular and pedagogical decisions, and there is little space for collective, professional, and systematic sense-making of pedagogical practice.