Wholehearted teaching: Women teachers, neoliberalism, and the struggle to be 'good enough'
Location
Critical and Culturally Responsible Research (Session 2 Breakouts)
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
Given our culture of dominance, or as hooks (2013) defines it, our “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”, and the current era of neoliberalization, women teachers are faced with the dilemma of having to “consistently revise and reimagine how to be successful in their work” (Pittard, 2016). This is due to the “impossible subject positioning” of the good enough teacher (Pittard, 2015) that is “held up as possible” (Walkerdine, 2003). In this paper, we use Brene Brown’s (2010) Guideposts for Wholehearted Living, hooks’ (1999) love ethic, and our experiences as classroom teachers to explore how cultivating wholehearted teaching and learning in schools might transform schooling and ultimately contribute to the public good. We believe that authentic living as defined by Brown (2012) allows women teachers to push back at the neoliberal discourse of the good enough teacher and embrace their authentic self.
Keywords
women, teachers/educators, neoliberalism, authentic teaching
Professional Bio
Christina Gillespie is a former classroom teacher and Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice. Her work focuses on the working lives of women teachers and equity in education, particularly in relation to social class.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gillespie, Christina H. and Thompson, Kali, "Wholehearted teaching: Women teachers, neoliberalism, and the struggle to be 'good enough'" (2020). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 26.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2020/2020/26
Wholehearted teaching: Women teachers, neoliberalism, and the struggle to be 'good enough'
Critical and Culturally Responsible Research (Session 2 Breakouts)
Given our culture of dominance, or as hooks (2013) defines it, our “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”, and the current era of neoliberalization, women teachers are faced with the dilemma of having to “consistently revise and reimagine how to be successful in their work” (Pittard, 2016). This is due to the “impossible subject positioning” of the good enough teacher (Pittard, 2015) that is “held up as possible” (Walkerdine, 2003). In this paper, we use Brene Brown’s (2010) Guideposts for Wholehearted Living, hooks’ (1999) love ethic, and our experiences as classroom teachers to explore how cultivating wholehearted teaching and learning in schools might transform schooling and ultimately contribute to the public good. We believe that authentic living as defined by Brown (2012) allows women teachers to push back at the neoliberal discourse of the good enough teacher and embrace their authentic self.
