Rhizomatic Resistance: Teachers, Personal Politics, and the Opt Out Movement

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-12 - The Impact of Testing on Teacher Identity

Abstract

A social movement has emerged recently in public education, as resistance to high-stakes testing has erupted around the nation. Various stakeholders within education have pushed back against the hierarchical influence of corporate reform and spearheaded a growing opt-out movement. While district policies often prevent direct teacher involvement in the opt-out movement, teachers have resisted high-stakes testing by participating in activism outside the classroom. This paper examines how teachers navigate the territory between personal politics and school policies, and inhabit different aspects of their identities to engage in teacher activism. Framed by a post-structuralist/material feminist lens, I utilize the Deleuzoguattarian concept of the rhizome and Jane Bennett’s concept of agentic assemblage to illustrate the complex and organic nature of teacher resistance.

Author

• Krystal Sundstrom, University of Oregon