This presentation adresses the challenge for  teachers' professional self-conception and pedagogical action that lies in the fact of them being involved in societal relations of power and dominance. Pedagogues face such challenges within their profession, for example, when creating pedagogical relations that are marked by socially significant differences, when making decisions concerning social settings or teaching material that transport ways of constructing knowledge about social relations, and when working together with their colleagues within informal and formal hierarchies. We ask how this challenges show in pedagugues’ every day work and their reflection on it.

In educational research the effects of power and dominance have been researched rather in terms of discrimination and social exclusion then in terms of privileges of the included subjects. Also, research often addresses pedagogical situations in a one-sided manner, focusing on the students’ situatedness within societal relations. This presentation, however, is based on the assumption that everyone involved in a pedagogical situation—and the situation itself, to begin with—is always part of relations of power and dominance, often in contradictory and conflictual ways for the pedagogues.

We consider educational and pedagogical processes as powerful processes within discourses of subject constitution (cf. Ricken/Rieger-Ladich 2004). Mecheril/Plößer (2011) describe the structure of these normative discourses using the term "difference orders," thereby referring to binary orders that privilege definitive positions and devalue ambiguous positions  (cf. ibid.: 62).

More and more pedagogical concepts (in anti-racist education, feminist education and also teacher education) claim the professional centrality of pedagogues’ reflection on their own situatedness in difference orders.

This presentation aims to present our theoretical lens, through which teachers' “being involved” in powerful difference orders can be viewed and present empirical data from the research project “Facing the Differences - Contradictions and Differences as a Constitutive Element of Pedagogical-professional Self-conception” (2010-2012) and follow up studies.

The theoretical framework is situated at the interface of critical education theory (cf. Messerschmidt 2011) and professionalism research, which has hardly been explored. We apply concepts from critical whiteness studies (e.g. “white privilege”), gender and queer theory (e.g. “vulnerability”) and intersectionality studies within professionalism theory.

Bush, M. (2011): Everyday Forms of Whiteness: Understanding Race in a "Post-Racial" World. Lanham: Rowman, Littlefield. Butler, J. (1997b): The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection. Stanford: University Press. Casale, R./Villa, P.-I. (eds.) (2011): Verletzbarkeiten. feministische studien. Zeitschrift für interdiziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Vol. 29. Stuttgart: Lucius. Haug, F. (1999): Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Erinnerungsarbeit. Duke Lectures. Hamburg: Argument. Mecheril, P./Plößer, M. (2011): Differenzordnungen, Pädagogik und der Diversity-Ansatz. In: Spannrig, R./Arens, S./Mecheril, P. (eds.): bildung - macht - unterschiede. Innsbruck: university press, 59-79. Messerschmidt, A. (2011): Lehrer/in sein in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft–Pädagogische Reflexion der gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen für den Umgang mit Migration. In: Karlsruher pädagogische Beiträge 76, 105-114. Muhr, Mikki (2012): Sich Verzeichnen – mit Karten sich im Zwischenraum orientieren. Eine künstlerische Methode für reflexive Bildungsprozesse. In: Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at, 15th ed. Wien. Ortner, R./Thuswald, M. (2012): In Differenzen schreiben – Kollektive Erinnerungsarbeit zu pädagogischen Situationen. In: Ortner, R. (ed.): Exploring Differences. Zur Vermittlung von Forschung und Bildung in pädagogischer Praxis. Wien: Löcker, 65-82. Ricken, N./Rieger-Ladich, M. (eds.) (2004): Michel Foucault: Pädagogische Lektüren. Wiesbaden: VS. Scharatow, W. (2011): Zwischen Verstrickung und Handlungsfähigkeit – Zur Komplexität rassismuskritischer Bildungsarbeit. In: dies./Leiprecht, R. (eds.): Rassismuskritik Band 2: Rassismuskritische Bildungsarbeit. Schwalbach: Wochenschau, 12-22. Villegas, A.M./Davis, D. (2008): Preparing teachers of color to confront racial/ethnic disparities in educational outcome. In: Cochran-Smith, M./Feiman-Nemser, S./McIntyre, J. (eds.) (2008): Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. Enduring Issues in Changing Contexts,3rd ed. NY: Routledge, 583-605. Vlieghe, J. (2010). Judith Butler and the Public Dimension of the Body: Education, Critique and Corporeal Vulnerability. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 44 (1), 153-170. Walgenbach, K. (2011): Intersektionalität als Analyseparadigma kultureller und sozialer Ungleichheiten. In: Bilstein, J./Ecarius, J./Keiner, E. (eds.): Kulturelle Differenzen und Globalisierung. Herausforderungen für Erziehung und Bildung. Wiesbaden: VS, 113-132.