Performativity, Subservience, and Women Teachers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: From Subservience to Strength: Discourse, Resistance, and the Future of Teacher Education (Table 3)

Abstract

In recent years, dominant narratives have been pushing more restrictions onto K-12 teachers. The American Library Association has reported a record number of book challenges and bans in recent years. Legislation restricting what can be taught in schools has been introduced in a variety of states. Parent groups have become more active in trying to impact what is taught in the classroom. In this paper, I tie current trends in restrictions placed on educators to historical understandings (related to the feminization of teaching) of teachers as subservient. I discuss the idea of teacher subservience through the notion of performativity. That understanding is used to consider ways to resist this notion of subservience and reframe the idea of female teacher.

Author

• Kirsten Robbins, SUNY - College at Oneonta