ABSTRACT
Jacquilyn Dudley is an African-American teacher of 12-year-olds in the Midwest of the USA. Her description of her decision to change the way she organized and delivered her science lessons serves as a good introduction to the subject of this chapter: the everyday work of the teacher. The largest part of the everyday work of the teacher, or of the majority of teachers, takes place in the classroom, and so we have concentrated on providing a feminist perspective of classroom work. Towards the end of the chapter we deal briefly with the work of the teacher in the wider school, and in the community. (Other chapters also deal with the everyday realities of the teacher’s work. See, for example, Chapter 3 on knowledge and Chapter 5 on biographies and experiences.) The separation we have made between the classroom and other domains of the teacher’s work is made for analytical convenience-in reality we recognize that the wider school regime permeates the classroom. The teacher’s work extends beyond the classroom walls (Gibson 1988, Grant 1988, Metz 1978, Proweller 1998, Swidler 1978), and the community is often a brooding presence (see, for example, Darmanin 1995, Foley 1989, Peshkin 1978, 1985, Walford and Miller 1991).
