Overview

Do American professional public school teachers have the same rights to a private life as other citizens? This is an astute and incisive analysis of every teacher’s dual life – as responsible exemplars to society’s youth and as their own professional and private selves. Using historical and legal analysis to capture the tension between these two guises, it explores the balance between the weight of expectation from teachers’ communities on one hand and the need for autonomy in professional environments on the other. A Teacher’s Private Life explores some of the core questions that surround this debate: what kind of out-of-school behaviour should constitute dismissal, and what should be protected? To what extent should teachers serve as role models adhering to the values of the community in which they work? How does the special position of trust and responsibility enjoyed by teachers weigh up against their liberty to fashion a life for themselves? Should their private lives be subject to greater scrutiny than those in other professions? This is an enlightening guide for education and legal scholars, local and state level policymakers, community leaders on how the legal framework around these core issues has emerged and evolved over time.

Full Product Details

9781350533486

Table of Contents

Reviews

'The boundary between an educator’s professional and personal life can be blurry. Because they are role models, educators are held to a higher standard for actions that they may take in their private lives, including their social media presence. But what are those lines? What does the law say about where that line is drawn? What are the policies that we should pursue to strike an appropriate balance? Those are just some of the important questions that this well-researched and well-written book helps answer.' * Mark Paige, University of Massachusetts, USA * 'Questions about whether, how and to what extent the private activities of teachers should be subject to scrutiny are longstanding in countries around the world. In this book, DeMitchell and Fossey provide an historical analysis of these questions in the American socio-political context, tracing the emergence of the legal concepts of ‘exemplar’ and ‘nexus’ to examine shifting perceptions of teachers’ right to personal autonomy versus the community’s values and expectations for their behaviour. This book provides a fascinating and much-needed examination of how the teacher’s position within the community is, should be, and could be understood, and will be essential reading for all scholars interested in these enduring tensions at a time of widespread professional turmoil for teachers around the globe.' * Meghan Stacey, UNSW Sydney, Australia *

Author Information

Todd A. DeMitchell is Professor Emeritus of Education Law & Labor at the University of New Hampshire, USA Richard Fossey is Professor Emeritus of Education Law & Policy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA

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