This paper uses data from a larger study in response to recent literature regarding teacher professional identity. In the study, perspectives of teachers from four high schools in two states were examined through a cross-case study. Triangulated data affirmed that teaching is not easily understood by a single theoretical perspective. Additionally, teachers' instruction is heavily influenced by mentor teachers, colleagues, and teachers' own classroom experiences as sources of content and pedagogical knowledge. Our findings show how agency grounds teacher praxis in secondary English classrooms. While there is no one way to teach per se, the combination of different dialectic influencers and teachers' agentic belief play critical roles in shaping teachers' instructional practice.