philosophy

Identity, sexuality, and emotion in learning to teach, is the subtitle to this remarkable book, Negotiating the Self, written by Kate Evans. Evans examines the experiences of gay and lesbian teachers in the school setting. She uses several different pre-service teachers and their experiences of teaching to convey the message of the difficulties homosexual educators have in the school systems. Then Evans goes further in this realm of experiencing difficulties while teaching to include any teacher, regardless of race, sexual orientation, religion, or creed. Every educator negotiations themselves during teaching because of their own personal identities that they do not wish to reveal to their students.
Why do teachers withhold or avoid answering certain questions their students' pose? This was a key question that I held throughout the entire reading and I still have not answered it. Evan's writing allows the reader to question and think about the conditions she sets forth in her writing about the gay and lesbian pre-service teachers and how they relate to the readers own life, no matter the sexual orientation. Negotiations take place to maintain the social order that is present in any school system, that is the avoidance or not answering a personal question that is posed by a student.
In conclusion, this is an excellent read that makes the reader consider the constraints placed upon them that may involve their sexual orientation, religion, political position, and any other factors that are considered personal by the educator. How one answers, does not answer a question, or withholds information is a process of negotiating the self in relationship to others, which affect all the people involved in the interaction. Evans offers a point of view that openly addresses issues that educators face on a daily basis. Read it to find out how you negotiate yourself!

I originally was not interested in reading this book, but I am glad I did read it. I was entertained and compelled to stop and reflect on how and why we send the messages we do. The journey travels on four different lives that have pain, personal struggles, and laughter, which are things that we all share. Just like any other good book, I couldn¡¯t put it down until I found out what became of these four people. Unlike a fictional story, Kate Evans eloquently narrates the stories, and brings the importance of the common theme, self-identity, to the more national issue of the education and gay/lesbian mix.

The book centers on gay and lesbian teachers in-training, but more importantly, it looks into the way we interact with one another. We get to see a rare look into these professionals through their self-examination and interviews with Kate Evans. This book is a thought-provoking look into negotiating the self.

¡°What happens when one¡¯s senses of self interact with a new role or identity?¡± (Evans, p. 5) I found this to be a major question the Kate Evans addresses. How would you answer this question? How do you believe the one¡¯s sense of self interacts with a new role or identity? Imagine going back to school after years of being out of school, or becoming a parent for the first time. Events like these will affect how you think, interact with others, and who you are. You will forever be changed. Just because the issues in this book are about education and homosexuality, it is still relevant to communities other than the gay and lesbian community and the education community. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to know one¡¯s self better, to examine why we behave the way we do.

The author, Kate Evans, writes an interesting book about the self-identity of gay and lesbian teachers. Through several interviews with gay teachers, and even student teachers the reader learns about the struggle that gay teachers go through in today's society. Do they tell their students their sexual orientation or do they negotiate themselves in order to keep a job and maintain respect in their school.

The book is an easy to read book that is hard to put down. Negotiating the self is based on events and personal experiences that happened to the writer and the several people who were interviewed. The stories told by those in the book are ones that will make you want to laugh and cry in the same reading.

This book made me realize how much information teacher's sensor from their students, and should they really have too? You don't have to be gay to know that there is some information that may not be accepted by your students, parents and other staff members. It could be the fact that you've been divorced, among other things that you don't feel will be accepted by others. There are things that happen in while in school but they are not education. Such as being a role model. So many people that believe since you have a gay teacher, your teacher is going to touch you and "boom" you're gay. The big question in this book is "Why couldn't I just keep my "private life" out of teaching?" (Evans, 3) Is this really possible? Read and form your own opinions.