Fall of the public teacher – discourse of intimacy and the teaching profession in Denmark

Abstract

This article reports on a case study conducted in a Danish municipality with 22 teachers as participants, in the context of a project focused on well-being and key educational competencies. The final aim was that of discovering how their ideal of the good teacher was verbalised. What is it that they thematise? How are thematisations created and maintained? The study is theoretically based on Richard Sennett’s notions on the private–public divide and Michel Foucault’s definitions of power and discourse. It focuses on the manners in which Danish teachers articulate a discourse in which words and phrases otherwise seen in connection with intimate relationships (close friends, sweethearts, parents and children) are prevalent. This shall be defined as a discourse of intimacy, the assumption being that this discourse has become the predominant way in which to talk about the good teacher. Furthermore, the article provides (a) a discussion about the ontology of intimacy; (b) a threefold typology of intimacy, namely confessional, emotional and relational, a categorisation that stems from the teachers’ statements and exchanges when discussing good performance; and (c) a reflection on the concept of mode of intimacy, used in this research to refer to the manner in which teachers put to practice their idea of the good teacher, which is mainly through praise and recognition.

Keywords:

• schoolteachers
• forms of intimacy
• discourse analysis
• case study

Notes

1. All teachers’ statements were made in Danish and later translated into English. I am well aware of the fact that something may get lost in translation, and that full justice has not been done to the teachers’ statements concerning nuance, ambiguity and subtlety, which might be present in the original Danish version. Furthermore, pseudonyms are used for the teachers and pupils mentioned in the article.

2. For further information, please see UVM (2008) and MFVI (2014).

3. Here, too, an overly strong emphasis on feelings is problematised, which is regarded as a weakening of the professionalism of the nursing job. Kristin Heggen expresses scepticism about what she labels a heat wave within the nursing profession (Heggen 2000), which makes it ‘difficult to rise above the warmth of the heart and healthy common sense’ (ibid.), and Runar Bakken believes that focus on care will enhance the marginalisation of male nurses (Bakken 2004, 116).