Inhabiting a teaching body: Portraits of teaching

Jo-Anne Reid, Donna Mathewson Mitchell

    Research output: Book chapter/Published conference paperChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

    10 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    How does someone who has not previously ‘taught’ in a formal sense become habituated to the forms of bodily disposition that characterize them as a teacher? What discourses and practices frame the production of a recognizably well-prepared teaching body as a product of pre-service teacher education? Working from the premise that teacher education is ‘a practice producing subjects’, concerned with the initial and continuing formation of ‘teaching subjects’, that is, teachers as ‘knowledgeable and capable educational agents’, this chapter builds on concepts of practice, the body, and the teaching ‘self’ as increasingly expert in its field. Informed by theories of practice, subjectivity and performance, the chapter focuses on exploring and understanding the materiality of the body in the practices that supporting the preparation of beginning teachers and the development of expertise in continuing teachers in classroom settings. Two representations of practice here are provided here – one of an expert practitioner, one of a novice – within a consideration of how the idea of an appropriate and standardized teaching body is taken for granted as ‘naturally’ conforming to normative discourses of the (good) teacher formulated in the language of professional standards which seek to frame and (re)produce professional practice for pre-service and in-service teachers.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationThe body in professional practice, learning and education
    Subtitle of host publicationbody/practice
    EditorsBill Green, Nick Hopwood
    Place of PublicationDordrecht, The Netherlands
    PublisherSpringer-Verlag London Ltd.
    Chapter6
    Pages89-104
    Number of pages16
    Volume11
    ISBN (Print)9783319001395
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

    Publication series

    NameProfessional and Practice-based Learning
    Volume11
    ISSN (Print)2210-5549
    ISSN (Electronic)2210-5557

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