The "Miserable Conditions" of Teaching

• In Event: 75.041 - MTCC Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 75.041-14 - Lives of Teachers SIG Roundtable: Windows Into the Challenging Lives of Teachers

Abstract

The conditions of teaching have shifted dramatically, influenced by the effects of neoliberalism, and, subsequently, by financialization, or a shift from valuing current profits to future value-ations. We will take up Wendy Brown’s conceptualizations teaching as a vocation to consider the ways in which teachers are compelled by the worthiness of teaching, while withstanding the current state of miserable conditions. This hermeneutic analysis draws on empirical data to theorize the complicity and resistance experienced by teachers and the emotional toll this takes. We will argue for a theorizing of teaching as a vocation, illustrating the importance of teaching beyond neoliberal ideals of financialization, in order to maintaining the worthiness of the teaching endeavour, without which, risks becoming meaningless.

Authors

• Melanie D. Janzen, University of Manitoba

• Anne Mary Phelan, The University of British Columbia