The "Other" Teacher: Understanding the Experience of Graduate Teaching Assistants in Neoliberal Teacher Education Settings

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Educators' Experiences Amid Accountability: Fighting for Agency and Autonomy

Abstract

In this study, I critically examine how the exercise of power discursively shapes GTAs' experiences of teacher education in neoliberal contexts and hence, to reveal the hidden aspects of educational institutions, which are central to our understandings about the meaning of truth, fairness, and equity embedded in neoliberal academic settings. This study is set within a Carnegie classification “very high research activity” institution in a small city within the Appalachian setting. To critically examine how GTAs become marginalized on college campuses, a combined theoretical framework is employed in this study including a Foucauldian analysis of power and discourse (Michael Foucault & Jams Paul Gee); positioning theory (Rom Harre & Luk Van Langenhove) and intersectionality (Patricia Hill Collins).

Author

• Jing Zhang, Independent Scholar