Is the norm-critical teacher ‘bodiless’? : A Critical Discourse Analysis of how the teacher body is addressed in Swedish teacher’s manuals on norm-critical pedagogy

Abstract: Traditionally, the teacher body is disregarded in the educational field. This is because of traditional Western ideologies within which hierarchical dichotomies such as mind/body, matter/discourse, and theory/practice are maintained. In this study, I investigate discourse in four Swedish teacher’s manuals on norm-critical pedagogy. Proceeding from postconstructionist and feminist corpomaterialist perspectives, I research how the manuals maintain and/or challenge the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher. More specifically, I analyse how the manuals address the teacher body and how they challenge and/or reproduce the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’. Proceeding from Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough, postconstructionism, feminist corpomaterialism, and Guattarian and Deleuzian philosophy of affects, I look at the linguistic, discursive, and social practices of the manuals. In addition, I contribute to the discussion from my experiences as a teacher educator and educational material creator in questions related to equality and inclusion.  I argue that the manuals mainly maintain the traditional ways of knowledge production concerning the teacher by depicting the teacher as ‘bodiless’. This is done by disregarding the teacher body and addressing it as static. Nevertheless, the manuals challenge the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ in part. This is done by addressing the teacher body as being in composition with time, space, matter, and power (i.e., created in affective forces). Overall, the idea of ‘a bodiless teacher’ is maintained to a larger extent than it is challenged. As I understand discourse as both constituted and constituting, I claim that the manuals take part in the current discourse around the teacher, and adhere to the idea that there is no room for the teacher body and its inevitable parts (such as emotions, feelings, passion) in an educational context.