Thesis on "Teaching Profession in Canada and Changes"

Thesis 10 pages (2886 words) Sources: 6 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Teaching Profession in Canada and Changes in the Patterns of Advancement

The early development of the teaching profession in Canada favored the subordination of female teachers and the advancement of male teachers to positions of administrative authority. The objective of this work is to examine this issue and to answer specific questions in this area of study.

Research questions addressed in this study include the questions stated as follows:

(1) What factors contributed to this pattern;

(2) to what extent has the pattern changed, and what factors have contributed to the change or lack thereof?

The methodology employed in this present study is one of a qualitative nature and one that will be conducted through a review of the literature in this area of study and which is found in academic or professional peer-reviewed articles or journals, books or magazines or other publications.

REVIEW of the LITERATURE

Under Representation of Women (Feminization of the Profession of Teaching)

The work entitled: "The Under Representation of Women in a 'Feminized Profession: Gender Stereotyping, Management Politics, and the Dissemination of Information written by Amanda Bird and published by Dalhousie Journal of Information & Management states as follows in regards to gender role stereotyping and professions that are considered to be feminized such as teaching, nursing, and in this specific case noted by Bird, that of librarianship:

"Gender role stereotyping and feminized professions are directly connected, as each stereotype is integral to the perpetuation of the other. Librarianship is not the only feminized profession; women are also predominantly associated with teaching and nursing, and all three professions share similar characteristics. Generally, these professions require women to be caregivers, to educate, to chaperone children, to exhibit unyielding patience, and to be subservient. This is similar to the roles that women played as housewives prior to the majority of women vacating the sole roles of wife and mother and entering the workforce." (Bird, 2007)

II. Professions of Women -- Genteel Calling and Extension of Traditional Role

According to Bird (2007) the move of women from the home to positions of employment such as librarians and teachers was viewed "as a genteel calling and an extension of women's traditional role because it involved service, transmittal of societal values and culture, focus on the individual and attention to detail." (p.1)

It is the belief of Bird (2007) that the roles of women who work have been vastly "undervalued, as have the stereotypical values associated with femininity: patience, acquiescence, horizontal consensus (opposed to vertical hierarchies, which are associated with men), and the need for validation. This devaluation of women and of the roles of women in the workforce is not due to socially constructed biological inadequacies in "femininity;" the devaluation of women is due to patriarchal ideologies." (Bird, 2007)

Bird states that research has demonstrated that there are "...different leadership and management styles between men and women, and the research findings are comparable." (Bird, 2007) it is interesting to note the statement of Bird (2007) that the problem in which men perpetuate the female gender stereotype not only negatively affects women, but as well, it further has a negative effect on men as well. Specifically, Bird states:

"Men themselves also regularly stereotype the sexual orientation of male librarians. "Male librarians…seem to believe that there is a greater proportion of gay men in the profession than in society at large" (Carmichael, 1994, p. 227). This is a fascinating viewpoint, and I think this stereotype is attributed to the greater stereotype that librarianship is a feminine profession. It implies that if men are interested in being librarians, they must also exhibit traits that are deemed atypical in men: effeminate behaviors and other characteristics that marginalize men." (Bird, 2007)

Bird states that research has further indicated that there are variations in the management styles of men and women and that these "are attributed primarily to socially constructed, patriarchal ideologies that elevate men into positions of power over women." (2007)

III. The History of Women Teachers is Little Recorded

The work of Prentice and Theobald (1991) entitled: "Women Who Taught: Perspectives on Women, History and Teaching" states that the phrase 'woman teacher' is one that "still have evocative power." Prentice and Theobald explains that just as other feminist scholars that as they "began to look for the history of women teachers "discovered that women who taught in the past had suffered the same fate as most women in history. The schoolmistress was largely absent from mainstream historical work on education. To the extent that traditional histories of schooling considered teachers at all, tended to focus on the quest for professionalism in the occupation and their concern was chiefly the male educator." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Learned was that historical writing was itself perpetuating teacher stereotyping. According to Prentice and Theobald it was discovered by historians that "leading promoters of school reform accepted the doctrines idealizing the schoolmistress very reluctantly, and only when the numerical dominance of women teachers in the state elementary schools was already a reality." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Stated as a second complexity was the "...tendency to equate rhetoric with experience." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Specifically all too often women teachers were far too accepting of the idea which portrayed them as natural teachers of children and another view placed blame on teachers for the "watered-down, anti-intellectual schooling believed to be characteristic of the twentieth century on the image and reality of the nurturing 'motherteacher'." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991)

IV. Blame Placed on Teachers for Passive Acceptance of Hidden Curriculum

From the feminist view teachers were negatively viewed for what was conceived to be their "...passive acceptance of the hidden curriculum: the reproduction of patriarchy." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) in fact, so embedded in the hierarchical structure and gendered educational system women teachers were viewed as being both "its victims and unwitting perpetrators." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Stated as those who have been the "...least visible in the histography of education" are women who taught in domestic settings and women who owned schools themselves" and that this women went unnoticed by the "first wave of revisionist historians...who sought the origins of worthwhile education for women in the nineteenth-century reform movement known then and now as the 'movement for the higher education of women." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991)

When the state begin recruiting women as teachers it is stated to have "signaled a shift of location, a transformation in their teaching labor, a loss of autonomy, but not a radical new departure in the history of women's work." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Prentice and Theobald state that in Quebec, a predominantly French Catholic province revealed that more than fifty percent of school teachers hired by the government were women and "as early as 1851." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991)

Prentice and Theobald relate that in a study conducted between 1851 and 1991 "revealed that such factors are the lengthening of the school year or increasing numbers of pupils in schools could not explain the early predominance of female teachers in either rural Quebec of in several eastern Ontario counties." It is related that the reasons were demonstrated to be more than likely "poverty and the presence of a resource frontier which offered important alternative employment to young men." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) it is additionally stated that Quebec had a tradition of female teaching that was strong and that was supported by women's religious communities focused to and devoted to education.

V. Two School Systems in Montreal

The largest metropolitan center in Quebec is stated to be that of the city of Montreal and that this location did not succeed in developing "a monolithic public school system governed by a few men at the top and staffed by large numbers of women in the lower ranks." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) the result was two school systems: (1) French Catholic; and (2) English Protestant. (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) the French Catholic school system is stated to have been "divided along gender lines, favoring boys' schools and male teachers" and this resulted in teacher working in the French Catholic schools that were supported by the state continuing as predominantly male schools until the ending of the 19th century. (Prentice and Theobald, 1991)

Women who taught school during this time were in almost all cases a "widow with children to feed and educate, a wife whose husband had failed in the gold fields, or a young woman making her way in the world alone or assisting her family, women who taught in domestic or private situations also did so chiefly because they needed the income." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991) Prentice and Theobald states that it is apparent that "as women moved in to state-financed school teaching, the character of teachers' work in elementary schools underwent subtle but important changes." (Prentice and Theobald, 1991)

VI. Outside Authority and School Structure

At the turn of the century it is stated that education in Ontario and Quebec "became increasingly structured by outside authority." (Prentice and Theobald,… READ MORE

How to Reference "Teaching Profession in Canada and Changes" Thesis in a Bibliography

Related Thesis Papers:

Teacher Motivation Research Proposal

Teaching is one of the professions that many and indeed probably even most people enter with a large measure of idealism. They seek out education as a profession not for… read more

Research Proposal 64 pages (17626 words) Sources: 32 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Career Counseling This Analysis Term Paper

Career Counseling

This analysis of the career counseling profession's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats emphasizes the importance of the profession's contributions to fostering equality in a democratic society. Career counseling… read more

Term Paper 7 pages (2030 words) Sources: 15 Style: APA Topic: Career / Labor / Human Resources

---

Education Canada Option B: Progressive Essay

Education Canada

Option B: Progressive Education in North America and Canada

Discuss the history of progressive education in North America, beginning with John Dewey. How has progressive education been implemented… read more

Essay 12 pages (3483 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Organizational Change Is a Necessity Within Today Reaction Paper

Organizational change is a necessity within today's dynamic society. Change is however mostly associated with economic agents -- those players who seek profits, who want to attract as many customers… read more

Reaction Paper 2 pages (665 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Proletarianization and Professionalization Politics of Educational Reform Essay

Proletarianization and Professionalization

Politics of Educational Reform in Alberta and Teacher's Struggle against Proletarianization

In the 1990s, Canadian educational system went through a series of reforms. The province of Alberta,… read more

Essay 8 pages (2736 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>