‘Me at university doing teacher training – what a big laugh’: narrative and parrhesia

Abstract

This paper uses Foucault’s notion of parrhesia to analyse the story of another and to interrogate teacher education in terms of the particular moral order or the forms of socialization that it uses. I examine the context of my own teaching in terms of truth‐telling and the normative expectations that were found to exist. Through reflection and analysis and using the patterns of action research came the realization that some of what we do within teacher education examines a student’s moral performance rather than their pedagogical ability. The particular moral code that fits within teaching and teacher education needs to be considered in terms of social justice and social change. It argues that there exist collegial restraints and the typifications that serve to find the kinds of students and future teachers we consider appropriate. As an example of an action research study, the paper raises many questions that need to be further considered particularly in regard to ‘regimes of truth’ within teacher education.

Keywords:

• parrhesia
• social justice
• teacher education
• moral order
• narrative

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful reading of the paper and their very useful suggestions.

Notes

1. An Opportunity Shop where second‐hand and donated goods are sold cheaply or given to those who need them. Usually run by charities or church groups such as Oxfam or St Vincent de Paul.

2. An example of this type of thinking is the book It’s Your Time You’re Wasting: A Teacher’s Tales of Classroom Hell by the so‐called ‘Frank Chalk’ – a diatribe about the state of schools and teaching in Blair’s Britain, but where the problems are linked to parents and students, not the teachers (Chalk 2008).