ERIC Number: EJ1301590
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jul
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1757-7438
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The Everyday Traumas of Neoliberalism in Women Teachers' Bodies: Lived Experiences of the Teacher Who Is Never Good Enough
Thompson, Kali; Jones, Stephanie
Power and Education, v13 n2 p88-99 Jul 2021
A teacher's ability to feel successful--some might even say good--in today's education system relies on a particular conception of academic success. We argue neoliberalism, as it operates in education, is a normalized trauma enfolded in the individual and collective bodies of women teachers producing overwhelming feelings of never being good enough while also not feeling entitled to do what is right--in the moment--for the children they teach. But this is not new; women have historically been positioned as others through whom educational directives should flow without question. Using the lived experience of the first author, teaching in the south-eastern United States, we describe some of the tolls neoliberalism has on the physical and emotional well-being of the woman teacher body in the search of being good enough. We argue it is time for teacher education to become a feminist project where women have access to the intellectual and analytical tools to make sense of what is being done to them and to give testimony and be a critical witness of these everyday traumas that are being inflicted upon them, their students and others collectively in schools.
Descriptors: Women Faculty, Teacher Attitudes, Trauma, Human Body, Neoliberalism, Psychological Patterns, Self Esteem, Well Being, Teacher Education, Feminism, Standardized Tests, Teacher Student Relationship, Competition
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
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Language: English
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