Praxis of the Teaching Profession

Abstract

This chapter is an epic look at teachers' paths through teacher education, public school teaching, and teacher educators' work in a regional university. One teacher narrative intersects with the history of the teaching profession, on how this life is shaped and is also shaped by the social construction of an American education. Ideologies of patriarchy, economic development of human capital including the corporate culture in the university are examined. The discussion reveals the everlasting urgency for radicalization in the teaching profession through the illustration of a teacher development of critical consciousness, resistance, and the struggle against the institutionalized disciplined docility in the teaching profession. The examination of life in schools and in the university reveals a dialectic between contradictions of institutional oppression and a teacher's development of pedagogy.