We Don’t Produce, But We Create": Cuban Women Teachers Assert Their Significance in Processes of Social Reproduction

Using ethnographic research conducted between 2017 and 2020, I use social reproduction theory to examine the ways in which Cuban teachers assert their social significance. By demonstrating their centrality to the future of the Cuban nation, highlighting their around-the clock commitment, and comparing themselves to Cuban doctors, they make claims to significance that go beyond impressive student test scores. This research broadens understandings of Cuban schooling beyond the classroom and nuances understandings of what it means to be a teacher.

Dr. Angela Crumdy recently completed a 3-year Provost Postdoctoral Fellowship in the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education and now works as the Director of Programs and Research for an education non-profit called Barbershop Books. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she holds a PhD from the Graduate Center, City University of New York and a BA from the University of Michigan. Prior to graduate studies, she was a high school English teacher in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Crumdy is passionate about using ethnographic methods to explore the social lives of teachers and leveraging research findings to improve the experiences of teachers and those who they impact.  Dr. Crumdy’s scholarship has won awards from major organizations in the field of anthropology and education such as the Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, Comparative and International Education Society and Wenner Gren Foundation. She is currently under contract with Vanderbilt University Press to turn her dissertation into a book.