A progressive habitus versus teacher authority in Herndon’s The Way it Spozed To Be

I first overview the literature on progressive education and locate Herndon within this tradition. I suggest that Herndon’s progressive methods are undermined by his refusal to perform the role of teacher in accordance with expectations. I apply Bourdieu’s concept of habitus operationally to use data from Herndon’s memoir to construct a description of the habitus of actors in the narrative. I conduct a thematic analysis which indicates that Herndon’s difficulties may not simply be a problem with progressivism per se, but rather a problem of the clash of expectations which arises when progressive praxis occurs within a more traditional culture. Butler’s concepts of performativity and parody are used to suggest that the habitus clash arising from progressive praxis in a traditional context can potentially be addressed by making explicit the constructed nature of classroom identities.