Back in September, I found myself in a workshop being organized for teachers across Delhi NCR. In her introduction, the facilitator brought up the story “Perfume Teacher”, which in its original form, briefly goes like this: A student, initially unpopular with his teacher due to his inattentiveness and poor academic performance, ultimately led the teacher to realize that teaching goes beyond just imparting skills, and towards nurturing students. This revelation came when the teacher received an old perfume and bracelet as Christmas gifts from the student, and she learned that these items once belonged to the student’s deceased mother. This moment, where the student saw the teacher as a mother figure, brought tears to her eyes and led to her understanding that teaching encompasses more than just skills transfer.
During the workshop, the discussion shifted towards the idea that the teacher’s love and care for the student had inspired this meaningful gift exchange, ultimately defining her as an exceptional educator. The facilitator then posed the question: “Do you aspire to be ordinary teachers or “perfume teachers”? Most teachers expressed a preference for the latter. In this context, I found myself wondering whether I, too, wanted to take on a maternal role with my students and whether this nurturing aspect was integral to my teaching practice.
Terms blurring boundaries between kinship and the teaching profession
As I pondered over this question, I recalled that some educators introduced themselves as “mother-teachers,” a term that caught my attention. Upon further inquiry, I learned that in certain schools, this term is used to describe teachers who instruct at the primary levels. The rationale behind this term is that at this educational stage, teachers are responsible for teaching all subjects while considering the emotional, cognitive, and social aspects of a child’s development.
Consequently, they are not merely professionals but also substitute mothers within the school environment. This implies an essentialisation of qualities such as care, empathy, and maternal attributes, particularly among female teachers. This role also entails a significant amount of “emotional work”, which according to Sociologist Arlie Hochschild refers to the effort expended by individuals to modify and heighten their emotions while simultaneously suppressing undesirable feelings.
During my relatively brief teaching career, I encountered another term that blurs the boundaries between kinship and teacher roles: “house parent.” This term is used to refer to individuals responsible for the care of students in hostels. The prevailing understanding and expectation are that, given the students’ residence in a hostel, these house parents effectively function as surrogate family figures. This sort of terminology can be juxtaposed to a remark by a college professor who questioned why all relationships had to be framed within the context of kinship. She brought up the question of whether it would suffice for individuals to be acknowledged solely as teachers and students, without the added dimension of a familial association.
While I understand the relevance of having these terms and expectations for ensuring the comfort and wellbeing of students, I am left wondering about the well-being of teachers who have to take on these roles
While I understand the relevance of having these terms and expectations for ensuring the comfort and wellbeing of students, I am left wondering about the well-being of teachers who have to take on these roles. Is there training provided to them for the care centered tasks they are expected to carry out? Do they ever find support, or are they always only supposed to provide it? Would students be equal stakeholders in this equation and reciprocate? Who is acknowledging and returning this caring attitude that teachers are constantly expected to provide?
Attributes of an ideal teacher
In addition to the academic pursuits, teachers are expected to be approachable, available, kind, caring, to put thought into each and every lesson, to look at overall development of students and so on. These are qualities that are expected to come naturally to teachers, perhaps by virtue of the profession being largely composed of women. In order to carry out these tasks, to communicate these feelings, teachers often have to engage in “deep acting” which is an aspect of emotional labour, as Hochschild would say.
Hochschild utilises the insights of theater practitioner Stanislavski to delineate the distinction between “surface acting” and “deep acting”. Stanislavski is renowned as the creator of “method acting,” which demands that actors immerse themselves so deeply in their characters that they cease to act and instead react in a manner true to the character’s nature. In surface acting, performers simulate the character’s persona primarily for the audience’s benefit.
On the other hand, in method acting, also known as deep acting, actors become so absorbed in their characters that the audience becomes almost secondary; during the play’s duration, the actor essentially becomes the character. Hochschild delves into the core of this concept with the notion of deep acting. In deep acting, emotions or feelings are internally generated so much so that the manipulated emotion is authentically generated.
In addition to the academic pursuits, teachers are expected to be approachable, available, kind, caring, to put thought into each and every lesson, to look at overall development of students and so on
In practice, although the general expectation is for teachers to deeply engage with their emotions, this isn’t consistently the reality. Some teachers may resist this and opt for “surface acting,Rquo-karencho_sn6351-600x357.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full wp-post-image" alt="Featured Image" decoding="async" data-srcset="https://feminisminindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/130614_5e69z_rci-statusquo-karencho_sn6351-600x357.jpg 600w, https://feminisminindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/130614_5e69z_rci-statusquo-karencho_sn6351-600x357-300x179.jpg 300w" data-sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />
