Discourses and Subjectivities of the Gendered Teacher

Abstract

In this study, the authors ask the question, 'What does it mean to wear the labels "teacher" and "female"?' Eighteen Master of Arts in Teaching students volunteered to participate in a Gender Issues Seminar at a large US public state university. Their language, recorded through audio-recordings, response journals, and autobiographical webs become the basis for analysis. Applying post-structural feminist theory, the authors identify powerful discourses determining what it means to be 'female' and 'teacher.' The study illustrates how the discourse of teaching as acceptable women's work and the discourse of patriarchy work upon the subjectivity of women as they struggle with what it means to be teacher/woman. The authors then partially deconstruct these discourses, considering implications for teacher educators.