Conflicting Subjectivities: Understanding Religious Teachers in Public Schools

This dissertation examines the ways in which educators that self-identify as religious produce themselves as ethical subjects within the pseudo-secular space of public schools. This inquiry has its foundations in poststructuralist theories such as Derrida’s deconstruction (deeply informed by Caputo’s work in that field), Foucault’s thinking on discourse, and Butler’s work on The Subject. Furthermore, it understands public schools in America as brackish spaces wherein secular facades are informed by a sedimentation of religious discourse. Interviews with three educators serve as both data and provocation to explore a myriad of theoretical concepts including Derrida’s ethical perhaps, Foucault’s work on care of the self in the form of regimens, competing discourses as a vehicle to produce subjects, and the deconstruction of binaries. Furthermore, theological concepts such as spiritual disciplines, hopeful doubt, transgression, and the concept of “lostness” are explored around and within this interview data.