Epistemic Contentiousness: The Contesting of Women Teachers' Intellectual Authority in English and Social Studies

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Gender, Race, and Academic Discipline (Table 13)

Abstract

In this paper, I explore how English and social studies teachers have experienced a gendered epistemic contentiousness, in which women teachers’ intellectual and epistemic authority is routinely and hostilely challenged as inherently illegitimate. Drawing on three rounds of semi-structured interviews with 36 teachers across the U.S., this paper contributes to scholarship by highlighting how the broad contentiousness of the political climate and current attacks on public education have manifested for some women teachers. Results illustrate epistemic contentiousness against women teachers, often from (students they identify as) boys, and in relation to content about gender.

Author

• Rebecca Cooper Geller, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author