Teacher as Student: Biopolitics and Rethinking Teacher Effectiveness

• In Event: 52.066 - Foucault, Postfoundations, and the Complexities of Contemporary Educational Experiences

Abstract

This paper critically examines the hegemonic and neoliberal systems of teacher evaluation in Louisiana working under the guise of education reform. Drawing on a Foucauldian lens, this paper examines the ‘effective’ teacher as a biopolitical production through disciplinary power. Additionally, Foucault’s notion of docile bodies is (re)read alongside Deleuze and Guattari’s multiplicitous ontology to consider three entry points for re-conceptualizing standardized meanings of teacher effectiveness: (a) the gaze of effectiveness as a power-tool; (b) the effective teacher as good student; and (c) the affordances of a DeleuzoGuattarian ontology. The ‘effective’ teacher movement transforms from a professional endeavor to an ethical one.

Author

• Maria Ferris Greene Wallace, University of Southern Mississippi