Defiant imaginaries: From a politics of identity to an ethics of friendship in teaching

In this article we consider the current state of teacher professionalism in the neoliberalized context of 21st century education, characterized by intensified cultures of competitive performativity. As part of our discussion, we draw on interview data from early career teachers working in academies in the north of England, setting these alongside Foucault's thinking on friendship as a way of life, in order to explore how teachers' relationships to their professional work, to their colleagues and to themselves might be conceived and enacted otherwise.