"Strangers" In Schools

Substitute Teachers in urban public schools are a special group of teachers in China.They are informal teachers employed by schools because of insufficient teachers.They are in an awkward position in the workplace of schools.My research looks at the ‘awkwardness' and ‘strangeness' of substitute teachers in everyday school life.This study takes an urban public school in Wenzhou,Zhejiang Province as a field from the perspective of educational anthropology.Through a two-month field survey,I try to draw a picture of the interaction between young substitute teachers whose school age are under 5 years and different groups.Based on Gofman's theory of stigma,Pierre Bourdieu's theory of field,Henri Lefebvre's theory of space production and Scott's theory of everyday struggle,this study attempts to explore the interaction between substitute teachers and other groups in urban public schools,the understanding of these interactions by substitute teachers in urban public schools,and how these interactions and the understanding affect the young substitute teachers' understanding of the teacher's role.The following three conclusions are obtained:First,research findings show that the young substitute teachers suffer from the derogation of social stigmatization,especially differentiated treatment by various groups at school.Substitute teachers bear the derogation of stigmatized status in the special gap between actual and virtual social identities.They suffer from uncomfortable interaction in the context of remixed contact and promotes the transformation of self-identity in the reflection because of the stigma..Secondly,the marginalized position of young substitute teachers in the urban public school landscape is constantly constructed and produced.Because of the special position of substitute teachers in city public schools,they are forced to be on the edge of city public schools.The alienation of substitute teachers is not only theirspatial practice in the school field,but also a given habitual expression.There is no meaningful physical interaction between the group of substitute teachers and the group of teachers,students and parents.In the whole school picture,there is a system called "center-edge",in which the teachers tend to the center,and the substitute teachers tend to the edge.The system is a social relations of production of the distribution of power,and this social relations of production is reproduced,producing more divisions between central and marginal staff.This division is not a simple social space,but a creative constructive process,which needs the participation of both the constructors and the constructors.Third,the group of substitute teachers,as a marginalized group under the urban public school picture,has the survival theory of "transition first" and the struggle strategy of "daily resistance".As a marginalized group,substitute teachers in urban public schools will judge the Justice and necessity of society and schools with the survival ethics of "transition first".At the same time,teachers' status gives them a kind of moral right and moral expectation,which not only ensures their basic survival needs during the transitional period,but also wants to guarantee their proper survival status.Because of their "incomplete" identity and "marginalized" position,substitute teachers fall into the existential ethical dilemma,they will find a way from the reflection of suspicion to make their situation a little more logical--the strategy of daily struggle in school life.The daily forms and strategies of substitute teachers' resistance in urban public schools embody a kind of hidden resistance intention,which is actually a special role identity of substitute teachers.On the one hand,through daily struggle,the group of substitute teachers in urban public schools,representing insufficient efforts,hope to symbolically disintegrate their passive social status and position in the field.On the other hand,it also represents a rejection of the marginalization of one's own society and school field.Fourth,the role identification of the "stranger" of substitute teachers in urban public schools is to take a very flexible position in the face of doubts about their own social status and the uncertainty of their own role performance.This kind of role identity is continuously constructed by the "strange feeling" produced by its stigmatization,space production,survival ethics and resistance strategy.In response to the above research findings,the researcher put forward the following suggestions: the state grants legal identity to substitute teachers in urban public schools from a policy level and provides promotion channels;the region raises the wages of substitute teachers and establishes a mobile resource bank for substitute teachers;the school regulates the management system of substitute teachers,establishes a substitute teacher management system,and creates a good campus atmosphere and environment.