“The personal has become political”: A secondary teacher’s perceptions of her body in the classroom

Mallozzi, Christine A.

doi:10.2478/jped-2014-0009

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a secondary English teacher considered her body a personal and political matter within her professional settings. Discourse analysis of the participant’s narrative evidences that women teachers are pressured to present certain feminine and heterosexual bodies and present a similar personal life within their pedagogy. The risk in not following suit is being pushed out of the profession, a matter that can be problematic especially when a teacher undergoes personal changes counter to professional expectations. Teacher education responsibility in preparing teacher candidates for a variable professional trajectory is noted.

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“The personal has become political”: A secondary teacher’s perceptions of her body in the classroom

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