Like a Candle, Burning at Both Ends

The Cynicism of Teacher Erasure

Bibliographic Data

ID21314531
AuthorsPeter M Nelson (0000-0001-6302-5385, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy University of British Columbia, corresponding author), Scott Jarvie (0000-0003-0050-5909, Department of English and Comparative Literature San José State University)
Year2025
Volume75
Issue6
Pages1045-1059
Publication date2025-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducational Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-2004 • E-ISSN: 1741-5446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/edth.70051
OpenAlexW4414882974
LanguageEN
References cited37

This article builds from an exorbitant moment—the invocation of an inspirational quote on the eve of a new school year—to critically explore the larger, commonplace conceptual frame that the best teachers give all of themselves to their students, even to the point of self‐erasure, as it continues to manifest across various discourses in education, research, and policy. We find significant problems emerging from this rhetoric, ones that compromise both the efficacy and humanizing potential of pedagogical practices. Offering alternative ways forward for teachers that do not romanticize teacher martyrdom, we focus instead on approaches that affirm the relational complexities of work in classrooms and encourage constant transformation, versions of “a teaching life” we argue to be more life‐giving and sustaining

Compromise · Cynicism · Erasure · Focus (optics) · Frame (networking) · Invocation · Point (geometry) · Teacher education · Education and Technology Integration · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

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