Teaching as a political practice

Teaching may be viewed as a political practice, as teachers address the discourses of power in schools, especially those of inequality and social injustice. Teachers use their power in their relationships with students, colleagues and others involved in education for transformation. Teachers may be political when they use their own informal and life experiences and beliefs in governmental and political parties, unions, social movements such as the women’s and indigenous movements, and environmental movements, such as sustainability and permaculture, as a pedagogical resource to inform their teaching (Myers, 2009; Bar-Tal and Harel, 2002). But there are many more subtle and complex ways that teachers challenge the ‘taken-for-granted’ and normative assumptions about teachers and teaching (Myers, 2009). In this chapter, the notion of teaching as a political practice is discussed under the headings of social justice; the curriculum; government policy; teachers’ unions and politics of the school.