Erasure of the Female Teacher Body

• In Event: Curriculum, Bodies, and Space in Educational Contexts

Abstract

The teaching force in the United States is overwhelmingly female, especially at the elementary level. Because of this, the ways that teachers perform their gender can impact children’s understandings of gender and gender performance. During a study I conducted on the hidden messages that schools send to children about gender, my own response to an interaction with participants led me to understand how the hidden curriculum in schools that supports the erasure of female teacher bodies impacted my own gender performance. This paper argues that the erasure of female teacher bodies is a part of the messages that schools send to both students and teachers about women’s bodies, and these messages reinforces dominant narratives about gender.

Author

• Kirsten Robbins, Ball State University