"All Day, Every Day ... They Have Become Second Nature": Ideology, Agency, and Teach Like a Champion

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum, Textbooks, and Nation-State

Abstract

Because of its structured emphasis on authoritarian teacher control, efficiency, and accountability, the remarkably popular pedagogical handbook Teach Like a Champion (Lemov, 2010) should also be considered a product of the educational Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) (Althusser, 1970). This paper analyzes the ways TLAC positions teachers as ideological cultural agents who demonstrate the interrelationship between the State and the autonomous “professionals of ideology” (Althusser, 1970, p. 5) of the contemporary neoliberal educational ISA. Broader implications from a pilot study with the two veteran, public school teachers interviewd suggest that teachers’ social and professional lives are heavily influenced by the degree to which they comply with TLAC.

Author

• Stacia Cedillo, The University of Texas - Austin