Closing the Classroom Door: Denying the Political, Embracing the Moral

Abstract

This dissertation examines the ways in which elementary school teachers view their job as political. I asked teachers to reflect on how they construct their identity, inside and outside the classroom; their relationship with the community, inside and outside the educational institution; and what behavior they consider political.Teachers' identity is constructed through personal ideology and through societal influences such as historical context and popular culture. Radical pedagogy and feminist theory are the ideological lenses by which I measured the attitudes of teachers.Using grounded theory I found that elementary school teachers characterize their actions as moral rather than political, what they called "doing the right thing." This research is important for looking at ways that political involvement on the part of teachers can be reframed as moral behavior. It includes implications for the relationship of elementary school teachers' pedagogy and a democratic society.