On-Call Mulan: A Qualitative Study on Novice Female Secondary School Teachers’ Embodied Experiences in China

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: International Explorations of Women in Academia and Teaching

Abstract

In China’s secondary schools, while female teachers often experience excessive physical depletion and the body plays a key role in novice female teachers’ professional adaptation, the body has long been neglected—making a shift from macro-structural perspectives to micro-level bodily perspectives imperative. Using Young’s body experience theory, this qualitative study explores 14 novice Chinese female secondary school teachers’ embodied experiences. It identifies triple constraints (embodied occupational load, gendered cognition, physiological objectification) shaped by dual oppressions (institutional-cultural discipline, time-space oppression) and their resistance strategies. The findings enrich understanding of gender inequality in education, offer a localized revision for China and educational application of female body theory, and inform policies aimed at improving novice female teachers’ professional ecology.

Author

• Jinwen Qu, East China Normal University