Fantasies of teaching: handling the paradoxes inherent in models of practice

Abstract

This article seeks to contrast two constructions of teachers and teaching in England. The first construction is to be found in government documentation, which privileges a technical‐rational approach. The second is to be found in film and advertising for the profession, where the teacher is represented as an altruistic and charismatic subject. In their contrasting ways, both these constructions can be regarded as fantasies for teaching held by the government and wider society, which the teacher has to deal with. The article examines both constructions and the tensions that have been created by their presence in Teacher Training Agency ‘texts’, by drawing on data from trainee interviews as well as examples from the media which give rise to these disparate fantasies. Employing psychoanalytic theory, the article seeks to examine the ways in which teachers and trainees are faced with the paradox of fulfilling both seemingly contrasting fantasies while in the meantime the Government works to annex personally felt fantasies into its codes. It is suggested that trainees need to be educated into these tensions and that practitioners overall need to maintain their fantasies for teaching as well as accommodating these codes.

Reasserting theory in professionally based initial teacher education

“…It would seem that the demarcation of practice as distinct from theory was mirrored in the students' early media-driven fantasies of what it was to be a teacher, as well as in the succession of government initiatives reifying the professional space in those terms (cf. Hanley, 2007Hanley, , 2010.…”

Lacan, subjectivity and the task of mathematics education research

“…The image of who they should be is specified in great detail and, in due course, new teachers identify with such specifications, see themselves in those terms and, like their employers and regulators, begin to assess their own performance (find pleasure even) in those terms. See also Hanley (2007) and Nolan (2007). Ultimately, their practices are only noticed to the extent that they conform to the official image.…”

Developing a university contribution to teacher education: creating an analytical space for learning narratives

“…Over time, most were able to develop a more nuanced vocabulary for self-representation, reflecting their deeper inquiry into the ways in which their opportunities for agency were distributed across roles and situations. Such enhanced understanding implicitly acknowledges our dependency on self-images and how these remain subject to change and renewal (Hanley, 2007). Moreover, the 'original' conception may reveal itself to be rather less solid than we supposed.…”

“…according to this way of seeing things, learners construct fantasies of learning that become objects of their desire. These fantasies are stoked by depictions in the media of triumphant teachers, overcoming the odds to turn round difficult pupils' lives (Hanley, 2007(Hanley, , 2010. at a more prosaic level, we can begin to discern the play of our desires by attending carefully to what we are saying and how others are receiving it.…”