Out of Bounds: Secondary Teachers’ Use of Labor Boundaries as a Strategic Form of Resistance

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Of Care and Resistance: Teachers' Voices in Complex Times

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the relationship between secondary teachers’ professional boundaries and their conceptualization of teacher identity. Based on a subset of qualitative data from a larger mixed-methods research project on teachers’ attitudes about care labor, this study utilizes responses from open-ended survey questions with secondary school teachers (n = 260). Findings suggest that some teachers set labor boundaries as a strategic form of resistance to ideologies that associate caring teachers with boundless labor. These findings indicate that some teachers reject the valorization of self-sacrificing teacher labor and establish boundaries to self-define their teacher identities. Implications for educational leaders and scholars are discussed.

Authors

• Shanea Neal, Southern Methodist University

• Janel Anderson, Gonzaga University

• Jeff Walls, University of Iowa