Girls Becoming Teachers: An Historical Analysis of Western Austra ...

The new institutional culture permitted them to take up a more ‘modern’ subject position, and the women reworked their daughterly identities. The college syllabus had been overtly gendered during the early years, but became more academic and ‘scientised’ during the ’20s. Through such developments, the basis of teacher authority and professionalism became defined by ‘scientific reason’, and women students were further exposed to the culture of critical discourse. This gave them opportunities to construct a teacherly identity based on professionalism and expertise and to move away from a notion that it was a ‘natural’ extension of their womanly nature.

In summary, the central argument is that during the early decades of the twentieth century, the circulation of contradictory gender discourses and access to education gave women teachers who trained at Claremont Teachers’ College, Western Australia, opportunities to create a sense of self that was not defined solely by domesticity and marital status. This argument, however, should not be seen as promoting a Whiggish celebration of women’s access to education and the teaching profession. Rather, the exposition upon which it is based should be seen as one contribution to the major research agenda that needs to be conducted internationally in order to respond to the call for a greater set of bounded studies that pay close attention to ethnic, class, and regional differences, as well as instances where women teachers exercised autonomy and resistance.

The remainder of this introductory chapter is in five parts. The next part locates the study within the context of the scholarly literature on the histories of women teachers. This is followed by an exposition aimed at framing the study. An outline of the origins of the Swan River Colony, the settlement that developed into the state of Western Australia and that contains the site of the study, is presented. A brief overview on teachers and schools in Western Australia in the early years is then outlined. The chapter closes by detailing the questions that guided the study and a summary of how various aspects of the central thesis are treated in the remaining chapters.

Histories of Women Teachers: Issues and Directions

This thesis is a contribution to what Weiler has described as ‘a collective exploration’ of the history of women teachers, which draws on a number of perspectives.⁴