Punching the clock: a Foucauldian analysis of teacher time clock use

ABSTRACT

This article features a Foucauldian analysis of interview data from a qualitative study of four North Carolina public school teachers who are required to clock in and out of school each day via a virtual time clock. In this article, Michel Foucault’s theories of discourse, discipline, power, and surveillance are brought into dialogue with teachers’ interview responses, and three associated analytic questions drive this article’s analytical exploration: 1.) What discourses are made visible by teachers’ time clock use? 2.) How does time clock use produce forms of subjectivity? 3.) What are these subjectivities? The resulting analysis suggests that the practice of teacher time clock use sustains problematic discourses, produces troubling subject positions, and contributes to the deprofessionalization and subjugation of public school teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Public education
• public school teachers
• neoliberalism
• Foucault
• power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowldgement

I would like to thank Dr. Alecia Jackson, Dr. Peter Nelsen, and my fellow members of Cohort 24 for their invaluable feedback on the manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris Gilbert

Chris Gilbert is a former high school English teacher and current doctoral student in Appalachian State University’s Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. His research interests include critical literacy, action research, school reform, and teacher advocacy. His work has appeared in The Washington Post’s education blog, ‘The Answer Sheet,’ NCTE’s (National Council of Teachers of English) English Journal, Kappa Delta Pi’s The Educational Forum, and he has also written a number of resource guides for Penguin Random House and Patagonia. He is a 2013 and 2015 recipient of NCTE’s Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Writing Award.