ERIC Number: ED662372
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Sep-18
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Why Are Teachers Excessively Entitled? Understanding Teachers to Foster Their "Ideological Becoming"
Tara Ratnam
Advances in Research on Teaching
In our societal context, the neoliberal competitive and knowledge-oriented culture still exerts a stranglehold on teachers' sense of professional autonomy giving rise to a deficit image of them as 'excessively entitled'. The purpose of this chapter is to eschew this deficit view of teachers by bringing their agentive side to the fore. First, it explores the concept of 'excessive teacher entitlement' in terms of the prevalent characteristics of the culture of teaching in schools and the nature of authority wielded by teachers in this culture and its negative consequence on student learning using an excerpt from an English as Second Language (ESL) classroom in India where this study is set. This episode helps expose the teacher's unawareness of the gaps between their intention and action, a hallmark of excessive entitlement. Second, it juxtaposes an alternative image of 'teacher as researcher' to foreground teachers' 'transformative activist stance' which revolves around their "ideological becoming" in agentively striving to realise their 'best-loved self'. Framed within Vygotskian Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the principle of 'double stimulation' provides a powerful analytical lens to unpack the complex discursive dynamics of their practice nested within historically developing contradictions. These contradictions work tacitly to drive a wedge between teachers' intentions and action making them feel excessively entitled to passively acquiesce with the existing order of things. This study provides some signposts for teacher education about creating an environment where teachers can reclaim their transformative agency freeing themselves from the 'excessive entitlement' that binds their practice to the status quo and diminishes their relationships with students. [For the complete volume, "After Excessive Teacher and Faculty Entitlement: Expanding the Space for Healing and Human Flourishing through Ideological Becoming. Advances in Research on Teaching. Volume 47," see ED662291.]
Descriptors: Teacher Attitudes, Professional Autonomy, Teacher Empowerment, Foreign Countries, Teacher Role, Activism, Ideology, Intention
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Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: India
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A