"We Have to Stand Up for Ourselves": Queering Neoliberal Teacher Professionalism Through Teacher Activism

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: SIG-Teachers Work/Teacher Unions Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Employing narrative inquiry, this paper explores how Saskatchewan teacher activists enacted multifaceted advocacy to resist detrimental neoliberal educational reforms. Sources included semi-structured interviews with five teacher activists and narrative vignettes as evocative representations of teacher voice. Queer theory is utilized (Jagose, 1996; Sullivan, 2003) to disrupt hegemonic understandings of professionalism seeking to regulate teacher behavior. Particularly, the queering of professionalism is rooted in Harding et al.’s (2018) poststructural framework of alliances, assemblages, and affects. Findings suggested that neoliberal pressures influenced teachers’ sense of professionalism yet, despite associated risks, they persisted in advocating for public education and were strategic in doing so. This study offers potentialities for destabilizing, reconceptualizing, and subsequently realizing more activist interpretations of teacher professionalism.

Authors

• Trudy Lynn Keil, University of Regina
  Presenting Author

• Pamela J. Osmond-Johnson, Memorial University
  Presenting Author