In-service Teacher Entitlement Attitude: A Case Study from the Spanish Context

Abstract

While “academic entitlement” focuses on student entitlement and its consequences, there is a need to be aware of the consequences of teachers' entitled feelings arising from their subjective perceptions on student learning. This micro-ethnographically oriented study uses the case of an eleven-year-old fifth-grade student's low academic performance at a Spanish primary school to unravel the notion of excessive teacher entitlement embodied in the social organization of schooling. A qualitative analysis of teachers' perceptions of this student's low performance showed that most of their opinions were subjective, based on their deep-rooted deficit view of students. These beliefs seemed to make teachers feel entitled to blame the student and her background instead of arousing self-reflection leading to self-realization and change in practice. The study points to teacher entitled feelings as a symptom of the wider sociocultural mores that make teachers assume the power to arbitrate without considering students' situated needs. This study draws attention to the need to help teachers become conscious of and analyze self-entitlement to enable them to base their decisions on reason rather than prejudice.

Citation

Hernández, I. and Mena, J. (2021), "In-service Teacher Entitlement Attitude: A Case Study from the Spanish Context", Ratnam, T. and Craig, C.J. (Ed.) Understanding Excessive Teacher and Faculty Entitlement (Advances in Research on Teaching, Vol. 38), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-368720210000038010