Between resistance and collaboration: A teacher's professional activity in the Third Space

• Authors: Jūratė Litvinaitė

Abstracts

EN

Aim. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of education and theory of postcolonialism, to explain how the teacher’s position changes in the processes of cultural transmission to their pupils. Concepts. Bourdieu states that the purpose of a school is to reproduce power relations. Teachers, using their authority, implement a culture that supports the position of the dominant class. However, various new studies show a decline in teacher’s authority. The rupture of hierarchical connections in the process of culture imposition is being studied in postcolonialism. By applying the ideas of Homi K. Bhabha, the modern teacher activity can be explained not as a cultural reproduction but as a teacher’s constant encounters with the culture of the Other. A space where cultural encounters take place, Bhabha names the Third Space. Here, a new hybrid culture emerges, and a school becomes open to otherness and diversity. Results. In contemporary society, teachers do not have enough authority to impose a cultural reproduction. Teachers are forced to choose resistance to their culture by encountering pupils and collaborating with their pupils’ culture. As a result, a hybrid culture emerges, and the Third Space forms in schools. Conclusion. Contemporary education is heavily influenced by societal changes, which are shaping new conditions at schools and different perceptions of teachers’ work. Previous theories of the sociology of education provide only a limited explanation of these processes. By expanding these theories with theories from the field of culture, we broaden our understanding and ability to explain the processes in today’s classrooms. However, such a theoretical approach should be validated by empirical studies in the future. Originality. By applying the postcolonialism theory to explain the process of cultural formation in schools between the teachers and their pupils.

Keywords

EN

teacher’s habitus; pedagogic work; pedagogic authority; reproduction of culture; encounter; Third Space; mimicry; hybrid culture

• Publisher: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
• Journal: Journal of Education Culture and Society
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 157-171

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Jūratė Litvinaitė

• [phone]

• https://orcid.org/0000000319720385

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Identifiers

DOI

10.15503/jecs2022.1.157.171

Biblioteka Nauki

18104616