Private Lives,Public Lives: Surveillance,Identity and Self in the Work of Beginning Physical Education Teachers

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to knowledge of teacher socialization, and in particular, current understandings of sources of teacher dissatisfaction. It focuses on the experiences of beginning physical education teachers working in non‐metropolitan schools. While lining and working in small conservative communities, these teachers were subject to a variety of pressures relating to their isolation, beginning professional status, and personal lifestyle choices. These pressures to conform are explored using Foucault's FOUCAULT, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish (New York, Pantheon] account of the processes of regulation and surveillance, and by drawing on data which illustrates how teachers’ work practices, appearance and lifestyles were being watched by the school and outside community.