Abstract
Grumet's (1988) citing of the patriarchal project to "claim the child and teach him or her to master the language, the rules, the game and the names of the fathers" (p. 21) is highly reflective of today's standards-based classrooms. In fact, the outer nodes of a classroom activity system (tools, rules, division of labor) (Engestrom 1999; Engestrom and Miettinen 1999) closely reflect Grumet's patriarchal project. Meanwhile, Grumet (1988) cites the maternal project as "relinquish (ing) the child so that both mother and child can become more independent of one another" (p. 21), echoing teachers' desires for students to become empowered in the classroom and to have choice and agency in their learning, creating a more fluid timeline of learning. This chapter privileges the voices of eight Kindergarten through second grade teachers, challenging this oversimplified binary. Through these teachers' narratives a complex interrelationship is presented, strongly representing this pull between forces of the patriarchal and maternal projects.