The Phantasy of Teacher Identity and the Transitional Space of Becoming

• In Event: Roundtable Session 95
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Identity and Disposition in Diverse Learning Contexts

Abstract

This paper considers a significant moment arising from a small group conversation within a research project with teachers to consider the becoming of the teacher subject. This moment is read and theorized through theories of subjection (Butler, 2004; 2005; Davies, 2006) and in contemplation of the psyche (Britzman, 2003a, 2003b; Ellsworth 1997, 2005; Winnicott, 1971). I will argue that when the internally persuasive discourses of being are in tension with the authoritative discourses of identity (Brtizman, 2003) this tension occurs in a transitional space of being. Within this transitional space the subject may consider its own becoming and perhaps the becoming of teacher differently than the normative and authoritative discourses of teacher identity iterate.

Author

• Melanie D. Janzen, University of Manitoba