The 'average teacher' need not apply: Women educators at Teacher's College, 1887-1927.

摘要

This study examines the early history of Teachers College in relation to the training of female leaders in education between the years 1887 to 1927. Although widely known for the training of male school administrators and educational leaders, Teachers College was attended predominantly by females. It trained women for leadership positions in education and in other female-identified fields of work and study, including nursing education, public health nursing, and nutrition. While this study explores the broad development of Teachers College, it is principally concerned with women's upward mobility during a period of increasing bureaucratization in public schooling. It focuses on specialized fields in education that were female-centered or accommodating of female initiative.;Drawing on recent work in women's history aimed at dismantling the ideology of separate spheres, this study challenges the widely-held notion that "women teach and men manage" as too uncomplicated a view of women's work in education. Focusing on the largely overlooked role women played in the creation and support of reforms linked to the scientific management movement, it suggests the existence of a more stratified female labor market in education than has been commonly recognized. It emphasizes the importance of assessing women's experiences in education in comparison to those of other women. In suggesting the limits of a view of gender based on differences between the sexes, this study also emphasizes the common interests, values, and ideas that allied women and men in education across gender boundaries. It explores those alliances in connection with the development of Teachers College as a front-ranking professional institution and in relation to the imposition of managerial reforms in education.