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“Excessive teacher/faculty entitlement” is a nascent idea in teacher education. Ratnam chanced upon this notion of “excessive teacher entitlement” while trying to understand and find a language to characterize the perplexing paradox of teacher intransigence in the face of the adaptability required of them to address the intensifying issues of equity and diversity in this global multicultural world. The concept of the “best loved self” brought in by Craig as a perfect complement to “excessive teacher/faculty entitlement” helped them present the two in a yin-yang relationship. The authors in the five chapters of this section use the language of excessive entitlement to conceptualise and uncover the sources of oppression experienced by them in the situated dynamics of their institutional milieu. Their narratives tell how the naming of the phenomenon provoked them to become conscious of the presence of excessive entitlement in themselves and others accompanied by a liberating push towards realising their best loved self.

Teachers are generally interested in practical ideas for their classroom without being inclined to reflect on the theory behind them. Teacher aversion to theory has been a constant source of frustration for teacher educators who conduct in-service programs in the Indian context. Teachers' disinclination to think theoretically and recognize the need to change to create more equitable educational ecologies in a rapidly evolving multicultural world can easily be taken to signify an “excessive entitled attitude,” a personality deficiency. An investigation into understanding the source of what seemed to be “excessive teacher entitled attitude” led me to become self-reflexive about my own journey as a teacher. This chapter, which unravels my reflective journey as a teacher, uses narrative inquiry to make sense of my “stories of experience”. It is an intersubjective process intertwining teacher narratives with my personal narrative. Self-reflectivity facilitates the liberation from “excessive entitled attitude” by shining a light on it and paving the way for learning and the development of new attitudes toward the self, the other and the world. The findings show the complex recursive path negotiated by me in becoming aware of the way my “excessive entitled attitude” in my position of authority as a teacher blocked my connection to my students. It also shows the place of theoretical thinking in my transformation into a more thoughtful teacher agentively creating inclusive learning spaces for all students. The story of my transformation and the attendant change in my attitude toward myself and others helps others – teachers/educators/readers – retell their stories “with added possibilities.”

This chapter identifies the broad interdisciplinary ideologies of entitlement in order to situate and understand the potential theoretical informants of excessiveness in teacher entitlement. Although the authors' perspectives and experiences on the theme of entitlement are located in the US educational system, this is accompanied by an awareness of the need to examine the topic internationally since the topic needs to “be reconsidered in terms of contextual variables.”

Psychological and organizational entitlement were the prevalent strains of entitlement that emerged in the reviewed literature and “academic entitlement” specific to the field of education. Therefore, three strands, psychological, organizational and academic, form the thematic categories for this scoping literature review.

Most literature on “academic entitlement” deals with excessive entitlement amongst students. No reference to excessive teacher entitlement was found. However, specific gaps were found in: (1) what qualifies as excessive teacher entitlement, (2) research scholarship on teacher entitlement, and (3) entitlement studies specifically aimed at global reach and applicable to teachers.

The theoretical informants of teacher entitlement identified in this study indicate that the phenomenon goes beyond individual mindset to encompass the mediation of sociocultural and political factors in its construction, thus rendering a simple theory of excessiveness in association with teacher entitlement improbable at this time.

This chapter investigates the phenomenon of teachers' “entitled attitude” that manifested itself as resistance to change in the midst of a curricular reform in the Indian school context. For teachers long socialized into a teacher-centered culture, the change expected was nothing less than a paradigm shift in the Kuhnian sense. However, conclusions drawn from studies involving cursory surveys and teacher observation pinned the problem to teachers' “entitled attitude,” an unwillingness to exert themselves beyond the minimum level required by school policies. This view reflects a lack of acknowledgement of teachers as persons with values and the capacity to think and feel as potential agents of community practices such as schooling. My study investigates the wider sociocultural historical and political basis of teachers' putative “entitled attitude” informed by Lev Vygotsky's dialectical approach. It accesses the interrelated history of a teacher at a number of levels using the teacher's life history to create the narrative. This “genetic” analysis helps illuminate what the curricular change means to teachers inside out. The findings are used to unravel the nature of support that would help teachers realize their agency and sway them from using entitlement as a compensatory mechanism to deflect change.

The notion of excessive teacher entitlement arose out of concerns with trying to understand and find a language to describe the paradox of faculty/teachers' intransigence in the face of the flexibility required of them to promote the learning and well-being of all in the institutions they serve. Through unique narratives, the authors trace the parallel paths they negotiated in their challenging curricular journeys, which led them to unmute teachers' voices cached in reform stories. The first author, Tara Ratnam, coined the term “excessive teacher entitlement” to characterize the putative deficit view of teachers that is projected onto them and how the concept of the teachers' “best-loved self,” which the second author, Cheryl Craig, developed, embraces teachers' input and complements “excessive teacher entitlement,” albeit from a different direction and perspective. This introduction also provides a bird's-eye view of the diverse ways and contexts in which leading international authors examine excessive teacher entitlement in the 17 chapters that follow.

Our investigation of the emerging issue of teacher entitlement is viewed from the perspective of researchers trying to make sense of the concept with the intention of exploring its links to inclusive educational practice, teacher education and research. This chapter is therefore mainly conceptual, focusing on the limits and possibilities offered by the extension of the concept of entitlement, first relating to students, now extended to the teaching profession. The concept of entitlement is gaining currency principally in the Anglo-Saxon literature but should also be reconsidered in relation to contextual influences. In the educational field, debates denote several ‘displacements of concepts’, as shown in the extensive reviews and analyses of the concept of entitlement attitudes we undertake in this work. We first discuss developments and interpretations of the concept of entitlement specific to different disciplines in the literature. Then we undertake a contextual reframing based on a redefinition of the concept drawing on input from empirical research data, which emphasizes the challenges encountered when dealing with the phenomena of social cohesion, ethics and cultural diversity in education. The findings highlight the potential benefits of integrating the concept of teacher entitlement into valid strategies for implementing an inclusive and ethical educational process.

The labor regulatory framework in India provides a conducive environment for social dialogue and collective participation in the organizational decision-making process (Venkata Ratnam, 2009). Using data from a survey of workplace union representatives in the federal state of Maharashtra, India, this paper examines union experiences of social dialogue and collective participation in public services, private manufacturing, and private services sector. Findings indicate that collective worker participation and voice is at best modest in the public services but weak in the private manufacturing and private services. There is evidence of growing employer hostility to unions and employer refusal to engage in a meaningful social dialogue with unions. These findings are discussed within the political economy framework of employment relations in India examining the role of the state and judiciary in employment relations and, the links between political parties and trade unions in India.

Set in the Indian context, this chapter speaks of the wider concern expressed in teacher education more generally, that of increasing the efficacy of preservice teacher education for social justice. In India, equity in education has been a central concern within the striving for social justice since independence in 1947. Schools now include vast numbers of culturally diverse students, who were once excluded. However, notions of “standardization” and “homogenization” that tend to ignore their diverse voice, make transaction in the classroom an alienating experience for them. These normative ideas are challenged by emerging multicultural and critical perspectives in education which recognize linguistic and cognitive diversity and the need to create spaces for learners’ self-expression by nurturing their cultural identities in school. My chapter analyzes the effect of the collision of these two perspectives on an in-service ESL teacher and the culturally diverse learners she teaches. It then examines in what ways this pedagogy is promising for preservice teacher education that seeks to promote teaching for social justice.

This chapter addresses issues of power distribution in the context of doctoral research supervision. In this respect, manifestations of abusive practices constitute real problems for doctoral students in terms of the success and continuation of their research. A first reflection is made on the way this phenomenon is addressed in the literature and the explanations given. Then, it is brought into perspective with the notion of “excessive faculty entitlement” (Ratnam & Craig, 2021), to better understand how this asymmetrical power relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee is constructed and experienced. To provide exploratory answers on how to promote more equitable spaces for doctoral students, this study focuses on monitoring committees which represent an a priori more equitable way of addressing the issue of power distribution in supervision and which are therefore likely to help students in their doctoral journey. Our study of a recorded session of a monitoring committee is based on an analysis of the different discourses at work, discourse analysis being considered as a form of social action that has an impact on the lived experience and its foreseeable consequences (Fairclough, 2001). Characteristic features related to the specific detrimental asymmetries in this situation were identified. Several categories of power asymmetries detected in supervision were found to hinder the identification process at stake and thus the conditions for the doctoral student's success. It is suggested that awareness of these asymmetries could help supervisors to develop a more supportive and equitable relationship, leading to positive change.

We started our exploration of the notion of excessive teacher/faculty entitlement with the metaphor of digging. In this final chapter, we assemble the major themes that the international scholars in this book unearthed. This comprehensive review helps us take stock of where we started (came from) and to position us where we are at. It also opens up for further consideration where we are going. A plotline emerges for thinking about teacher support in ways that eschew entitled feelings and promotes a beneficial sense of self-esteem, moral value and professional responsibility that needs nurturing as new challenges in the field unfold.