Jessica Wren Butler: "I hope to be a role model’ or ‘go away, don’t follow’? ....... "

Departmental Seminar: 24/1/24
"‘I hope to be a role model’ or ‘go away, don’t follow’?" Authenticity, performativity, and differing perceptions of role-modelling and pedagogical practice".
Dr Jessica Wren Butler, (co-authors Dr Jo Horsburgh, Kate Ippolito), Imperial College London
As some of the most visible staff to HE students, those with teaching responsibilities may find themselves positioned as role models, especially if they occupy a minoritised identity. However, this ‘burden’, as one participant put it, may not fall equally or sit comfortably for everyone.
This seminar draws on 30 semi-structured interviews with teaching-responsible staff at a UK STEMMB-focused university to identify a variety of beliefs about the nature, function, and utility of role models and role-modelling, and the connection between authenticity, identity, in/visibility, and teaching values and practice. Who is able to opt out of being a role model, who is expected to convey ‘authenticity’, and who feels required to ‘act’?
Bio
Dr Jessica Wren Butler is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher working across the fields of gender studies, cultural sociology, and educational research. Her interests constellate around unbelonging, ideals and imaginaries, and group cultures.