Teaching as a Political Act and the Impact of a Cultural Mythology of Teacher Neutrality in a Post-Truth Era

• In Event: 28.089 - MTCC Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 28.089-5 - Space, Identity, and Language: Contexts of Teaching Multilingual Learners

Abstract

This case study of one university ESOL instructor emerges from a semester-long study that followed three teachers in an English for Academic Purposes program at a university on the East Coast, whose courses incorporated “controversial” content. The study illuminates contradictions in the experiences of this teacher, namely: 1) his recognition of himself as a political being and of teaching as a political act, and 2) the cultural mythology of teaching that posits teacher neutrality as a proxy for fairness. This paper responds to a little-discussed area of TESOL and prompts ESOL educators to consider the relationship between teacher neutrality and “post-truth” politics, and the ways that teacher disclosure through “committed impartiality” (Journell, 2016) may further the aims of democratic education.

Author

• Leah Marie Mortenson, American University