A Critical Discourse Analysis Exploring Teacher Conceptualizations of Identity: Glancing Beyond the Binary

• In Event: 42.056 - Teacher Identities: How Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Inform Pedagogy and the Sense of Belongingness

Abstract

This study explores how an urban high school teacher conceptualizes gender, sexual orientation and race—three identity constructs whose possible categories have, either historically or presently, been limited to two options—man or woman, gay or straight, and Black or White. The participant attended a top-ranked teacher preparation program and is considered a progressively minded teacher. The findings identify specific hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses that echo the larger socio-cultural discursive constraints at work in the participant's sense-making (referred to by some scholars as ‘mental models’ or ‘figured worlds’) and influences on his teaching. These findings suggest that many teachers and teacher educators have clear room for growth when it comes to unlearning dominant discourses on gender, race, and sexuality.

Author

• Eli Kean, Michigan State University