A Genealogy of the Concept of Teacher Identity in England from 1870 to 2015

Author(s):

Therese Lewis(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 01, Teachers in Transition

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

13:15-14:45

Room:

427.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Ian Grosvenor

Contribution

My work is a genealogy of the concept of teacher identity in England from 1870 to 2015 and analyses how material, cultural, professional and visual normalities weave across and through temporal space to shape teacher identity.

The time zones that I analyse are:

1870 to 1900: Moral Management: the belief in both the importance of the moral management of the urban working class and the State condoned moral entitlement of the privileged.

1900 to 1944: Education to the Rescue : the belief in the necessity of Education as a State Condoned Intervention.

1944 to 1976: Education and the Welfare State: education to nourish the middle-class to provide human support mechanisms to support/enable economic post-war growth.

1976 to 1997: Education and the Neo Liberal State: fracturing the foundations of post-war professional autonomy for teachers and schools.

1997 to 2010: the Chimera of State Education: has anybody noticed? Does anybody care?

2010 to 2015: the State Condoned Life: education as a coersive life allowing tool.

Method

This is not a detailed history of English State Education but a more modest work that focuses on the specific State discourses that condone/allow the teacher from the beginning of State funded regulated education in England from 1870 to the crumbling of certainties in 2015. This is not an analysis of one overruling supra - power that squeezes the teacher against her/his will into a particular mould but is an analysis of the temporally bounded discourses that seep into and construct teacher identity and furthermore become consensually owned by the teacher. To do this I apply the linked pathways of Nicholas Rose (1998) developed from the genealogical work of Michel Foucault (1981 - 1984) , namely: Problematizations; Technologies; Authorities and Teleologies however I bring in three additional pathways of my own: Corporealities; Moralities and Eugenics.

Expected Outcomes

The aim of my work is to build understanding on the ways in which teacher identity is being held and mashed in the webs of governmental discourse as I believe that by uncovering the regimes of temporal truths that have shaped, solidified and allowed teacher identity we are empowered to challenge the regimes of truth of the government of state education in 2015. Yes my work is focused specifically upon State Education in England from 1870 to 2015, but I believe passionately in sharing the tools that I have used to liberate our power to challenge the power of any State to set the rules of who you are and what you can be.

References

Foucault, M. (1986c) ‘What is Enlightenment?’ Economy and Society, 15 (1), pp 88-96. Foucault, M. (1987) ‘The Use of Pleasure’ in du Gay, P. Evans, J. and Redman, P. (2000) Identity. London: OUP. Foucault, M. (1989) The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. (1989) The Birth of the Clinic. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. (1998) ‘Technologies of the Self’ in Martin, L., Gutman, H. and Hutton, P. (eds.) Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. London: Tavistock Publications. Foucault, M. (2000) Power. London: Penguin. Foucault, M. (2001) Madness and Civilisation. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. (2001) Fearless Speech. Los Angeles: Semitext(e). Foucault, M. Is (2004) Society Must Be Defended. London: Penguin Foucault, M. (2008) The Courage of Truth. The Government of Self and Others II. Lectures at the Collège de France 1983 – 1984. Translated by Graham Burchill. Australia: Sage, 2011. Foucault, M. (2008) Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France 1973 – 1974. Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. Rose, G. (2007) Visual Methodologies. London: Sage. Rose, N. and Miller, P. (1992) ‘Political Power beyond the State: Problematics of Government’, The British Journal of Sociology, 43 (2), pp. 172-205. Rose, N. (1985) The Psychological Complex. Psychology, Politics and Society in England 1869 – 1939. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Rose, N. (1993) ‘Government, authority and expertise in advanced liberalism’, Economy and Society, 22 (3), pp. 283-299. Rose, N. (1996) ‘The death of the social? Re-figuring the territory of government’, Economy and Society, 25 (3), pp. 327-356. Rose, N. (1998) Inventing Our Selves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rose, N. (1999) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London: Free Association Books. Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom. Reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rose, N. (1999) ‘Inventiveness in politics’, Economy and Society, 28 (1), pp. 467-493. Rose, N. (2001) ‘The Politics of Life Itself’, Theory, Culture & Society,18 (1), pp. 1-30. Rose, N. (2007) The Politics of Life Itself. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Author Information

Therese Lewis (presenting / submitting)

Northumbria University

Health and Life Sciences

Newcastle upon Tyne

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