Unsettling the Overrepresentation of the Normative Science Teacher: An Autoethnography of the Pedagogical Other

• In Event: Towards Undisciplining: Temporality, Objects, and Method in Education Research

Abstract

Objectives
Teaching practices discourse has been critiqued for upholding static conceptions of what constitutes “quality” teaching (Cochran-Smith, 2020), including in science education (Jones & Burrell, 2022). These practices influence perceptions of a “professional” science teacher, creating Othering effects. However, it is taken-for-granted how the position is shaped to distinguish the un/disciplined teacher a priori to being filled. In this paper, I examine how differences in science teaching are reinscribed by constructing a Pedagogical Other against the normative Science Teacher.
Theoretical Perspectives
Wynter (1995, 2003) argues that the invention of Man as isomorphic to being human is a new construction that is based on the classification of the Human Other (subhuman) within an episteme normalized as White, Western, and rational. This model of humaneness functions to motivate/demotivate behaviors and thoughts that maintain the dominant social order. In education, this system differentiates teaching according to a pedagogical kind of teacher whose subjectivities, pedagogies, and expectations reflect the established norm of being human (Brown 2012). I extend this analysis to consider the constructed normative Science Teacher based on a Pedagogical Other whose “difference” is perceived to threaten the normative position through unsettling practices that make visible Man’s repressive mechanisms of control that utilize Othering technique to resist a redefinition of the science teacher.

Method & Sources
Autoethnography as an undisciplining methodology disrupts dominant discourse and extends traditionally ‘Western’ methodologies toward transformative possibilities (Durham et al., 2020; McDouglas, 2017). In this study, autoethnography is paired with a Wynterian lens to theorize about my experience as a Black science teacher at a predominantly white Midwestern middle school in the United States during 2016–2021 to explicate the construction and unsettling of the Science Teacher, and materialize unmarked anti-Black logics ‘science’ and ‘science teaching’ carry. I explore these processes by tracing the discourses surrounding two vignettes from my teaching experience —parent grievances about a science rap/poetry project and grading practices.

Substantiated Conclusions
My analysis details how the Overrepresentation of Man within the science teacher position is reflected through primary teaching practices that demonstrate (non/verbally) science understanding (e.g., assigned tasks) and secondary teaching practices that translate science understanding (e.g., grading). Pedagogical Othering through primary practices occurs within systems of reasoning that categorize un/scientific approaches. However, this process follows a racializing calculus that further divides and orders “unscientific” pedagogical practices (e.g., the embodiment and form of rap/poetry and hip-hop pedagogy) according to who employs them and normative expectations for scientific engagement. Secondary practices can be mobilized to construct the Pedagogical Other based on a teacher’s perceived qualification to “rightly” assess students' scientific understanding—this qualification being determined according to racializing premises of who the un/knowledgeable Science Teacher is.

Significance
This study’s Wynterian and autoethnographic approach to science education research depicts how expectations of science teachers must be questioned due to the historical entanglements of Man within the profession. Conversely, undisciplining helps redefine the science teacher and produce otherwise possibilities that normative approaches can inhibit.

Author

• Curtis O'Dwyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison