Giving Tree Teachers: Women and the National Board Certification Process

Shel Silverstein's children's book "The Giving Tree" imparts a useful metaphor for thinking about the role of teachers--women teachers in particular. The book's namesake is the epitome of altruism, providing branches, fruit, and even her trunk so that her beloved boy might have what he desires. And so it goes for women; endless giving, nurturing, and self-sacrificing is their lot in life, their role to embrace. Certainly traces of the Giving Tree remain in women teachers' partial function as nurturers of children and mother stand-ins. The concern of this paper is how this vestigial Giving Tree mentality may affect the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' (NBPTS) functions to improve the status and quality of the profession and to reward accomplished teachers who meet the rigorous criteria for National Board Certification (NBC). Using data from an interview study of forty-two Georgia secondary school teachers involved in the certification process, the authors demonstrate gendered differences in teachers' talk about both their motivations for becoming certified and the negative aspects of engaging in the process. The paper goes on to explore the potential ramifications of these differences for the future of NBC. The following is appended: Interview 1 protocol (Adaptations to pre-candidate interviewees). (Contains 2 tables and 4 endnotes.)