Penny for Your Thoughts: Confessional Discourse as Exchange for Educational Gain

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Posthuman Pedagogies of Resistance and Possibility (Table 30)

Abstract

This paper tells the story of how an undergraduate future teacher, Jessie, gave an account of hardship with the hopes of gaining a better grade. I interweave a conceptual analysis with Jesssie’s story, to unpack a situation that was troubling to both of us. Drawing on Foucault and contemporary thinkers, I interrogate personal sharing with a focus on confessional discourse. In doing so, I challenge the habitus of confession and call upon teachers to unpack concepts as troubling situations arise in practice.

Author

• Cara Elizabeth Furman, Hunter College - CUNY