Tales of Existing and Resisting as Female Teacher Educators in Neoliberal Times

ABSTRACT

Neoliberalism permeates U.S. teacher education programs and governmental policy, consequently increasing market pressure in teacher education and stunting the development of justice-oriented teacher educators. In this self-study, we explored how four female early-career teacher educator researchers (FECTERs) navigate this context. Our arts-based study revealed struggles with our principles, bodies, and futures in a neoliberal teacher education environment. We argue that demarginalizing FECTERs’ experiences in research and practice supports efforts to center justice and equity in teacher education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Given Glasser and Smith’s (2008) concern about the often haphazard use of terms such as female and woman, our use of female is deliberate and reflects our intent to highlight the ways in which neoliberalism has implicated our bodies and specifically our thoughts on reproduction. However, we recognize that neoliberalism also has particular implications for gender as a social construction (Cornwall, Gideon, & Wilson, 2008), thus imposing limitations on our terminology.