Threatening the patriarchy: teaching as performance

This article brings into conversation theories of performance and performativity to argue that the analogy of a teacher as a performer is a very complex discourse that both empowers and disempowers women teachers. As the field of teachers is increasingly comprised of women and the education policy a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Gender and education 2016-01, Vol.28 (1), p.20-36
Main Author: Falter, Michelle M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analogies
Cultural Influences
Discourse
Discourse analysis
Education policy
Educational leadership
Educational Policy
Females
Feminism
Gender roles
Hegemony
Leadership
Males
Men
Patriarchy
Performativity
power
Power Structure
Schools
Surveillance
Teacher Evaluation
Teacher evaluations
Teachers
Teaching
Teaching (Occupation)
Teaching methods
teaching practices
Threatening
Threats
Time
Women
Women Faculty
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Summary:This article brings into conversation theories of performance and performativity to argue that the analogy of a teacher as a performer is a very complex discourse that both empowers and disempowers women teachers. As the field of teachers is increasingly comprised of women and the education policy and administrative leadership fields is increasingly comprised of men, there is an equally disturbing increase in the amount of disciplining, standardisation, and evaluation of teachers' practices within schools in recent decades. The author argues that the perceived feminisation of the teaching field produces a situation in which teachers' performance is threatening to the patriarchal institutions, causing further surveillance upon women and their role. Yet, in contrast, an analogy of performance also can allow teachers to subvert hegemonic patriarchal practices. Central to this discussion are notions of threat, corporeality, and temporality. The author concludes with examples of how teachers and researchers have successfully subverted and re-appropriated the teaching as performance analogy for the betterment of teachers, despite the complexity of this discourse.
ISSN:0954-0253
1360-0516
DOI:10.1080/09540253.2015.1103838