Available Formats
A Teacher's Right to a Private Life: Community Control or Professional Autonomy
By (Author) Professor Todd A. DeMitchell
By (author) Dr Richard Fossey
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Bloomsbury Academic
11th December 2025
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Philosophy and theory of education
Teaching staff / Educators
Ethics and moral philosophy
Paperback
232
Width 138mm, Height 216mm
Do American professional public school teachers have the same rights to a private life as other citizens This is an astute and incisive analysis of every teachers dual life as responsible exemplars to societys youth and as their own professional and private selves. Using historical and legal analysis to capture the tension between these two guises, it explores the balance between the weight of expectation from teachers communities on one hand and the need for autonomy in professional environments on the other.
A Teachers Private Life explores some of the core questions that surround this debate: what kind of out-of-school behaviour should constitute dismissal, and what should be protected To what extent should teachers serve as role models adhering to the values of the community in which they work How does the special position of trust and responsibility enjoyed by teachers weigh up against their liberty to fashion a life for themselves Should their private lives be subject to greater scrutiny than those in other professions This is an enlightening guide for education and legal scholars, local and state level policymakers, community leaders on how the legal framework around these core issues has emerged and evolved over time.
Todd A. DeMitchell is Professor Emeritus of Education Law & Labor at the University of New Hampshire, USA
Richard Fossey is Professor Emeritus of Education Law & Policy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA