Imagining Teachers

Book excerpt: This book calls for a different understanding of the professional preparation of pre-service teachers, critically reflecting on issues of caring and gender, and challenging the dominance of 'words only' educational research methodologies. Using conceptual tools from visual anthropology, cultural studies, feminism and critical pedagogy, Fischman focuses on the educational dilemmas that students and professors in teacher education programs face within institutions that reinforce, rather than challenge, oppressive class, racial, ethnic and gender dynamics. He pays special attention to the transmission of models of teaching that are invested of essential masculine and feminine patterns that potentially lead to two very distinctive professional careers: one that is associated with 'dedication' and 'care', and a second that emphasizes 'order' and 'command'.