Search
On-Site Program Calendar
Browse By Day
Browse By Time
Browse By Person
Browse By Room
Browse By Unit
Browse By Session Type
Search Tips
Change Preferences / Time Zone
Sign In
Bluesky
Threads
X (Twitter)
YouTube
Purpose
In this presentation, I reflect on my cognitive and emotional relationship with excessive entitlement as an embodied experience through autoethnography and phenomenology. This critical exploration evolves from autobiographical narratives of lived experiences as a practitioner for over 37 years. By troubling or worrying the notion of excessive entitlement, I confront my beliefs through conversations with student and veteran teachers, examining the interconnectedness of how people are implicit in its production. What are the effects of excessive entitlement on self and others? Am I implicit in its production? If so, how and why?
Perspective
Dewey (1938/2004) points out that experience involves change, but unless this change connects to a consequence, which can be either positive or negative, it is meaningless; little or nothing is learned (Author, 2011). Using reflection to analyze self-data within an autoethnographic lens opens up the opportunity for change within the culture of the phenomenon of excessive teacher entitlement.
Method
As a researcher and participant, the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenology allow me to orient myself to my lived experiences as an art teacher and teacher leader. I attempt to flesh out or give more substance to my encounters with entitlement based on my interpretations of my lived experiences within the culture of education/school. I move reflectively between time: the past, the present, and the future in search of answering the questions: What is my relationship with excessive entitlement, and am I implicit in its production? If so, how and why? Are we, as educators, aware of our involvement in excessive entitlement, or does this occur subconsciously, our unawareness contributing to this cycle that may be adopted and passed on by our students and colleges? The blended methodology of autoethnography within the theoretical framework of phenomenology helped create connections between personal experiences in the culture of school with an understanding of my part in the narrative of excessive teacher entitlement and "the shifting connections they forge among past, present, and future" (Riessman, 2008, p.705).
I draw on journal entries, emails, written "ponderings," noted conversations, and memory as my data.
Findings
My reflective analysis of my lived experience shows that excessive entitlement occurs at all levels of education, and awareness is the first step towards understanding. Awareness helps understand the complexity of excessive teacher entitlement and the active reciprocal roles teachers and those who work with/against them play in fomenting it. More research is needed, and perhaps it should start with our students --We are always taught that teachers are entitled to respect, but we are not taught that students are as well. This expectation makes us excessively entitled.
Significance
Practitioners are rarely encouraged to confront experiences of entitlement in relation to the social, cultural, and political world. This presentation hopes to contribute to the ongoing scholarly conversation concerning the influences of excessive teacher entitlement, the relationship between these influences, and possible ways to regenerate understanding.