Stigma

Erving Goffman is a sociologist that developed the idea of dramaturgy. This is known as the idea that life is a never ending play and people are all actors in it. Goffman describes different concepts of dramaturgy known as a “front stage” and a “back stage”. He uses these terms to describe human social interaction. Front stage actions are ones that everyone in an individual’s life can see, also known as an “audience”. This is the stage that most of the people spend their time in. The backstage actions are the ones that happen behind closed doors. This is the time that people are their truest self and where they do not have to act.

There are many different individuals who engage in these concepts. One example is a teacher or a professor. A teacher will put on a major act when he or she is in front of their students. There are certain things that they can not talk about, they have to wear a certain style of dress, present themselves in an appropriate way. They can not act like their true self in front of the students, so here they are engaging in the front stage.

The institution of education displays power over these teachers engaging in the front stage by firing them or writing them up if they do not follow these expectations. An example of this is a teacher from Atlanta, Georgia named Patrice Brown getting fired from school for wearing a dress that was “too tight”, but in reality she was more being sexualized by the community for being curvy. There are also some critiques that if a white woman wore this kind of dress to school that she would not have been dealt the same consequences as Brown was. Unfortunately there are numerous different stories almost exactly like this one, but only affecting people of color.

There is a certain middle ground that these individuals engage in. While Goffman does not really talk about this part it does happen. When teachers or professors get in groups with each other, they do not have to put on as much of an act for each other, but there are still certain expectations of them that they must adhere to. For example, teachers will often talk about teaching with each other, such as certain methods or how their students are. They can’t really talk about much they do outside of teaching, even if it is something they really enjoy, because it might be considered not right for a teacher to do. An example of this is a teacher going out clubbing every weekend. Many of their colleagues or bosses would see this as inappropriate for a teacher to do, so they have to keep it hidden from everyone at work.

A teacher’s backstage would be everything that they do when they are not at their school. At their home behind closed doors is where they are their truest self. There are no expectations or requirements of them as a teacher here. They can lounge around, go clubbing, smoke, or whatever else they may like. The teachers act so much differently in this backstage than they do around students or around other faculty. They do not have to act at all during this stage.

I found that the average age of public school teachers in the United States is 42.4. In 2015-2016 80% of public school teachers were white, and in the same school year 64% were females. These demographics may or may not have an effect as to how teachers act outside of class, but there were no definitive studies that I could find that talk about this type of information.

I found a website that lays out certain rules and expectations that this certain district had for their teachers and a lot of the rules seem like they’re meant for children and not for grown adults. Every single rule starts with “I will…”. For example one of the rules is “I practice active listening with all members of the HPHS community.”, you would think you would have to tell a preschooler that, not someone who will be teaching the four year old. I will have a link to all of the rules below, I just found it very interesting that they decided to word them like this.

This website also does not really talk about exactly how teachers should present themselves when they are outside of the school. All it says is that they should respect the guidelines of their school district. Yet from personal experience, since graduating high school I have seen how different these teachers act around you even after only being out of that school for one year. It makes me wonder if it is an underlying theme in their education that makes them act so differently outside of school. There might be seminars or workshops in their education, such as grad school, where they give what is appropriate or not appropriate to do in a classroom. I also wonder if it is the fear of being labeled as a “deviant” within their place of work that makes their front stage so much different than their back stage.

These different stages can have a social impact on these individuals. Since they spend so much of their days engaging in the front stage act, they may feel like a fake. Having to spend days acting like someone they are not. They much rather prefer being themselves at all time but their profession does not allow it. Unfortunately this is the case for almost all professions. There are certain expectations tied to a title and you must act these out or you will not be able to keep the job. The important thing for these individuals is that they have groups of people that they engage in these different stages around them and that they all know that they have it in common.

Works Cited

“High School For Health Professions & Human Services.” Expectations for Staff – Teacher – High School For Health Professions & Human Services, http://www.hphsnyc.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=246466&type=d&pREC_ID=568676.

“Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/tables/sass1112_2013314_t1s_002.asp.

The Condition of Education – Preprimary, Elementary, and Secondary Education – Teachers and Staff – Characteristics of Public School Teachers – Indicator April (2018), nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp.

TheGrio. “The Curvy ‘Teacher’ Who Went Viral for Dressing Sexy Has Been Reprimanded.” TheGrio, TheGrio, 15 Sept. 2016, thegrio.com/2016/09/14/the-curvy-teacher-who-went-viral-for-dressing-sexy-has-been-reprimanded/.