The construction of ‘minority teacher’ subjects: a foucauldian exploration

Abstract

This article offers a critical examination of the relations of power that exist in educational contexts in which the teacher is a member of an ethno-racial ‘minority’. By interrogating the concept of the ‘minority teacher’, this study explores some of the ways human beings become subjects and how individuals come to occupy racialized subject positions. Foucault's conceptions of discourse, power, and subject formation are drawn from to examine the discursive ways ‘minority teachers' are positioned and how they actively take up this subject position. Through an exploration of academic literature and narratives on being a ‘minority teacher’, the article shows how individuals are produced and reproduce themselves as ‘minority teacher’ subjects.