A Discourse Analysis of Teacher Identity in the Common Core State Standards

• In Event: 26.079 - Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: 26.079-13 - Lives of Teachers: Some Provocative Issues

Abstract

Drawing upon Gee’s (1999) discourse analysis framework, this paper examines how the image of the teacher is constructed within the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) network. By reviewing all the documents presented by the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) and numerous documents by organizations invested in the creation and implementation of CCSS specifically discussing Common Core regarding what each states, suggests, and surmises about teachers, I discover three dominant images: teachers as tools of the Standards, teachers in need of structures and (re)training, and teachers as temperamental. In all, the CCSS discursive community imagines teachers, and their work and importance, as analogous to draft animals. As such, its likelihood of sustainably improving student learning is low.

Author

• Jake Malloy, University of Wisconsin - Madison