Anthropology

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When Those Who Can Do, Teach: Teach for America and the Devaluation of the Teaching Profession
(2014) Bahn, Hannah; Kelly, Patricia
This paper explores the ways Teach for America (TFA), a nationally-recognized non-profit organization that recruits top-performing college graduates into 2-year teaching commitments in urban and rural public school districts, devalues and deprofessionalizes the teaching profession. Using an in-depth content analysis of TFA’s marketing materials and interviews with undergraduate students who are applying to the organization, I identify how Teach for America narrates itself and explore the implications of this "master narrative." I find that TFA’s master narrative sets its corps members in opposition to "traditional" teachers (those who have gone through traditional teacher certification programs) by drawing on neoliberal conceptions of education and citizenship. The result is that Teach for America succeeds in making itself look more successful at a steep cost to the children it purports to help. In devaluing the teacher profession, TFA deters bright, dedicated individuals from viewing teaching as a worthwhile long-term career option. It is these individuals, not young adults with no training and little respect for the practice of teaching, whom America’s children need in their classrooms.