In the name of democracy : the work of women teachers in Toronto and Vancouver, 1945-1960 (original) (raw)
In the Name of Democracy: The Work of Women Teachers in Toronto and Vancouver, 19451960, examines the limits of educational 'democracy' for women educators. Educational administrators across the political spectrum assumed separate spheres to be intrinsic to the social contract for 'good' citizenship: the school as a public institution was dedicated to the rational, autonomous, politically engaged subject. 'Woman' was not that subject. This thesis demonstrates that women were quasi-citizens in the public school, yet leaders in the delivery of democratic hope for the age. On the one hand, women teachers were encouraged to participate in the increasingly 'democratized' institution of the public secondary school and were embraced as necessary participants in the labour market of the education system. In the years after the Second Great War, the reconstitution of the social order depended upon their performance. On the other hand, the maintenance of tradit...
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