Ph. D. Dissertation (summary)
Thun, Éva
W OMEN TEACHERS ’
PROFESSIONAL AWARENESS
The dissertation is directed by:
Professor Mátrai, Zsuzsa, DSc.
Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Education and Psychology
Doctoral School of Education
2012
The central question of this research is the phenomenon, that in spite of the high number of women teachers in the sphere of public education, those values with which women’s cultural, intellectual and scientific creative activities have enhanced the public sphere are not embraced in the discourses of educational theories, not even in teacher research.
When women’s professional qualities are considered – including women teachers’
professional qualities – those values and activities which are traditionally linked to women and to the private sphere are appreciated more in their public activities, instead of valuing those professional competences which are based on the fact that women’s experiences stem from their different positioning in the social domain. As a consequence of this understanding – in which the private and public roles and identities are mixed –, women teachers’ self- images and self-understandings regarding their professional qualities may be laden with conflicts. As a result, when attempting to identify their public roles, women teachers may encounter cognitive dissonance. This phenomenon may negatively influence the formation of their professional identities. It is crucial to find out how this phenomenon could be altered in such a way that women teachers are empowered as creative public agents of social and cultural changes.
Teacher education and teacher research discourses could not be regarded as valid sources of knowledge on teachers’ identities as long as they are locked in an academic theoretical discourse, without including the discussion of teachers’ embeddedness in society and culture. The academic discourses are based on psychological theories of identity and normative “prescriptions” of teachers’ preferred characteristics – emphasising abstract qualities and listing professional competencies that teachers are required to possess. These discourses remain within their own symbolic framework, without entering into dialogue with the actual individuals who practise the teaching profession.
The feminisation of the teaching profession has been a predominant topic within educational research since the 1970s and 1980s in Hungary. These teacher research activities have been carried out within the disciplinary framework of classical sociology without embracing the later and newer views on women’s issues of interdisciplinary social sciences including cultural studies, cultural anthropology, political science, multicultural studies and gender studies.
The fact that academic knowledge on education is created in the contexts of a dominant symbolic social sphere regarding both the historical perspective and its recent
interwovenness with other social spheres, namely economy and politics reinforces those social conditions which are ontologically set in the patriarchal traditions. Within this symbolic sphere, women scientists and researchers – as well as women teachers – historically and socially seem to be latecomers, and can be viewed as “aliens”.
The mainstream educational policies when considering the functions of the educational system tend to derive these functions from the needs and priorities which emerge in the economic sphere. As a result, teachers’ roles and teachers’ professional identities are influenced by this new understanding of education. Teachers are often described as technicians of the learning process, as facilitators of students’ learning, and education is becoming a service activity. This approach seems to cancel the importance of interpersonal communication and together with this the relevance of individual and collective agency is diminished.
The academic discussion of education and the current education policy priorities create a double bind for teachers who insist on keeping their individual professional autonomy. The above discourses can be considered as two alienating discourses for those women teachers who wish to think it part of their profession to reflect on their cultural social identities and their professional identities and their complexities.
When looking at women teachers’ identities from the perspective of social history it can be acknowledged that education and culture historically have been and still remain to be the most important symbolic spaces for women’s social emancipation. The first kind of women’s emancipation meant that women became part of the culture that had already been set for them before they entered that sphere, i.e. the value system and the contents of education were imbued with the male norms. To this day, women’s creativity and autonomous authorship both in cultural and social matters are fraught with problems.
This research has two goals:
(1) It intends to outline such a theoretical framework, which can trigger the discussion of teachers’ individual and professional identities so that their gender identities are brought under scrutiny as well. We assume that this theoretical framework will allow for identifying, understanding and resolving the tensions which exist among the factors shaping the gender identity and professional identity of women teachers, and for analysing the impact of these tensions on their work performance.
(2) We have designed two pieces of empirical research so as (a) to explore the contents, interpretations and attitudes which are available on women teachers in the discourses of educational theory; (b) to find out about women teachers’ views (women teachers’
voices) about the characteristics of their profession, about their commitments and the connections between their gender and professional identities.
The interdisciplinary approach of this research means that apart from the theory of education, the conceptual tools of sociology, cultural anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, gender studies and political science theories will be borrowed.
The researcher takes a committed subjective position in this work. On the one hand, we claim that the teachers’ creative work, social actions and teachers’ agency are significant parts of teachers’ professional performance in order to work towards social justice and to mediate among cultures.
The researcher also acknowledges that subjective bias which comes from the standpoints of feminist philosophy of science and feminist pedagogy.
2. THE STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH AND THE METHODS USED
In the theoretical part of this research we turn to those theories, whose conceptual tools and interpretive approaches may prove to be suitable for the discussion of how women teachers’ identities, social prestige and power, social action and creativity are interrelated.
When introducing the relevant theories, we put special emphasis on the contribution of feminist theories to those selected theories.
We employ the feminist standpoint theory, according to which the inclusion of gender in social science research does not only mean that the research questions focus on women and gender, but also gender is included at the level of theorisation and conceptualisation.
We intend to focus on such issues whether the theories the analysis of which we provide are useful theories for the purpose of establishing such a theoretical framework which is useful for providing a basis for such interdisciplinary teacher research which includes the topics and analytical methods of gender /feminist theory.
We assume that there is little knowledge available on women's potentials concerning creativity and social action in the social cultural sphere, and on how women’s professional identities are formed and what patterns are available for them to identify with.
Our research focuses on those discourses which are supposed to exert influence on the shaping of women teachers’ identities. We are interested in broadening the scope of those discourses when we analyse those contents which can support the individual and collective agency of women teachers, additionally we also investigate those which hinder the emergence of this agency.
We explore the question whether the discussion of women teachers’ identities is present or not in the educational research discourses, and if it is present, then what theoretical approaches are applied in the discussions. In order to do so, we look at texts which could be identified as mainstream texts and discourses in teacher research. We also intend to find out what kind of discourses women teachers themselves initiate when they are given the opportunity to express their views and to reflect on their experiences. We would want to find out to what extend gender is a determining factor in their own interpretations, whether they find the relationship between their gender identity and professional identity a determining factor and also how they rely on their life experiences and professional experiences as women.
The reason why we view the above described discourses as two different ones is because their authors and participants are differently positioned, i.e. they are differently embedded in their cultural and social backgrounds. They are differently positioned in a social hierarchy where the symbolic power of the researchers and schoolteachers are unevenly distributed, therefore it is important to look at the impact of these positionalities. The discourses of academic teacher research are well represented and well articulated in the symbolic spaces of educational research, whereas the discourse of practising women teachers cannot be heard. In order to be able to obtain valid and balances knowledge on the topic, we need to listen to women’s teacher voices as well, and we need to be able to represent the content of what they say vis a vis the content of the academic discourses. The content analysis of these two kinds of discourses should expand our knowledge on women teachers’ identities, on the scope of their creativity and agency in their professions. Thus, this present research has exploratory and interpretative purposes.
In this research, two types of data collection methods are used. In the first part of the empirical research, the method of qualitative content analysis, and in the second part, the focus groups (collective interviews) method is applied. This methodological triangulation is preferred so that the validity of the research results could be confirmed.
We identify two different levels for the two kinds of discourses. The first is set at an institutionalised level, and the second is at a social group level. At the institutionalised level we examine those theories of education and educational policy texts, in which the teachers as the actors of the education system are discussed in any way, within any paradigm or from any theoretical viewpoint. This may mean that we are dealing with a relatively high number of and a wide range of texts to select from. However, after the first screening of texts, it seems that there are not so many of them, which means we can establish the categories for the
analyses relatively precisely, without much diversion.
For the purpose of categorisation we organise the texts into categories according to the following questions: Is gender identity dealt with as background information? Is gender the topic of discussion, and if so in what depth and quality? We assume that from these texts we can extract those meanings and approaches which describe teachers as a social and professional group. In this part of the research project the qualitative content analysis method is used for data collection. For interpretive purposes the number of texts available, or the frequency of certain topics in those texts are not relevant, however it is crucial to explore what meanings these texts convey explicitly or implicitly.
At a social group level this research aims to explore the question how women teachers interpret and understand the interrelatedness of their professional and gender identities: What aspects of their identities are more pronounced? How do they articulate their professional competencies or whether they draw more heavily on the expectations, habits and beliefs present within their immediate socio-cultural micro world? How much women teachers are aware of their opportunities for pedagogical creativity and autonomy?
We do not intend to provide a comprehensive study including the total population of women teachers, since in this qualitative interpretive research the focus is on examining the validity of the questions raised and on the analysis of the contents and meanings that are present in the discoursers of practising teachers. Therefore, in this section the focus groups method proves to be the appropriate one. In a group interview situation, there is a greater opportunity for the researcher and research participants to develop a balanced, non- hierarchical relationship. This also means that the participants can have control over the way of communication and over the content of the communication as well.
In the case of content analysis of texts there is no intervention present, however, in the case of a focus group, the conversation itself involves intervention, since the issues raised and topics discussed may change the participants' points of views, attitudes, and may expand their knowledge. These changes in views and attitudes can be examined in a follow up research later to see how the participants have been affected by taking part in the focus group.
The results of the group interviews are texts which can be further analysed and compared to other existing texts. Thus, at the end of the empirical stage of this research we have texts coming from two levels of discourses institutionalised academic discourse and social group level discourse on the issues of women teachers’ identities , which means that a comparative analysis of these texts can also be executed.
Based on the theories introduced in this research we claim that women teachers interact with their broader and immediate social and cultural environments though those discourses that are available to them. We would expect that the professional praxis oriented education policy and academic educational theory discourses are of paramount importance. Therefore, it is important to find out that when it comes to professional identity formation and representation, what patterns and models are offered in there discourses for women teachers for identification: in the theoretical knowledge content, and in the pedagogical practices. We claim that the academic and policy discourses should support women teachers in developing their identities in such a way, that they promote the practices of social action and use of agency and creativity in the micro-contexts of education and in the immediate cultural social contexts of their own schools.
In order for women teachers to be able to display creativity in their cultural communities and in their professional activities and to become empowered agents in the micro-social environment, there must be a pedagogical discourse in which the meanings for this are contained, which could be transformed into the daily decisions and activities of women teachers. If we do not find these meanings and discourses, it must be assumed that this lack can be the source of much pathology.
We assume that the texts and discourses of educational theories can provide models for women teachers only when gender identity is discussed as relevant in those discourses. If there is no gender analysis in those discourses, then this lack itself may have an impact on women teachers’ identities.
If the discourses contain meanings and identity patterns which encourage identification with the essentialist female identity constructions, then this can trigger conformity and acceptance of the subordinate position as the natural way of behaving for women. It is not possible to assume a creative agent position on the basis of these patriarchal ideologies.
If we predominantly find such discourses which do not consider the socio-cultural embeddedness of the actors in education and the specificities which are derived from this embeddedness, then this creates abstract teacher images which are determined by normative expectations that are linked to prescribed, desired teachers’ personality and characteristics, teachers’ knowledge and activities.
In the content analysis section of the empirical research we examine the presence or absence of relevant discourses in both educational theory and educational practice texts. We have selected those texts, which in one way or another deal with the issues of teachers’ roles, teachers’ activities and teachers’ personalities. We have grouped these texts according to
those topics which appeared to be the most widely discussed ones. Therefore, we view these categories as typical in educational texts.
When establishing the categories we also used the approaches that were discussed in the theoretical part. Most importantly we consider the fact that the identity discourses can never be self-contained discourses. But there is always the hybridisation of discourses present including the symbolic dimension of time, space and interpersonal relations. This approach opens up the possibility to merge educational theory and gender theory in order to develop an interdisciplinary explanatory framework for women teacher issues in teacher research.
In the women teachers’ discourses about their own teacher images and professional identities we would like to find out how much women teachers integrate their gender identities into their professional identities and how they view their professional status in society. It is of importance to be able to identify whether women teachers follow the abstract normative and therefore androgynous – expectations about their professional performance, together with their value content, or whether women teachers rely on their own experiences as women and teachers. We intend to explore what information and knowledge women teachers have on the history of women’s education, on women’s contribution to the concepts and contents of education, which would represent women’s struggle towards cultural autonomy.
We would like to find out whether women teachers are familiar with the discipline of gender studies and gender research in education.
In this section of the empirical part of the research the method of data collection is group interviews with women teachers. These groups are formed for the purposes of this research only temporarily, though considering the social group identification of the participants, they are part of a relatively homogenous social professional group as well.
Feminist research in educational research is a committed form of research. According to this approach to social research the aim is not only the scientific description and analysis of social phenomena and social structures, but also it should provide the scientific analysis of the patterns of oppression and subjugation of individuals in those social structures, as well as intervene with the purpose of creating opportunities for bottom-up changes in the social structures by utilising, for example, action research. Feminist research is intensive qualitative research which aims to study the construction of gender in societies, and the individual and collective gendered experiences of cultures and societies. Feminist research is political in the sense that the research process itself is characterised by overt commitment to women’s empowerment in society and to creating more equitable social spaces for women in society.
The triangulation of methods in social science research ensures that the investigation of a given topic becomes richer, more complex, more detailed for the purpose of obtaining detailed and nuanced information from the data gathered during the research process. The method of triangulation is particularly adequate for interpretive research to obtain research data on the different attitudes and beliefs of different actors of the same social scene or social sub-system.
The method of triangulation is preferred when our aim is to study the education system and the phenomena within from a holist’s point of view, when the selected topic is controversial in itself, or when the orthodox methods may yield limited results.
In the case of interpretive research one should be able to extract meanings and explanations, arguments or one should be able to confer these meaning on the basis of the data collected during the research process. This means that the results cannot be ordered in a linear way, but instead the results are more meaningful if we organise them in a network of meanings.
3. RESEARCH RESULTS
The most significant social change, which has an influence on public education, is the globalisation of economy. It is impossible to ignore those changes which manifest themselves in the sphere of education as a result of responses to these changes, which modify the functions of public education.
However, there are certain tensions that have emerged stemming from the debates between the historically rooted value orientation of education and the pragmatic interpretation of the role of education. Several questions are raised: How do the new needs of the new world order affect the educational system based on humanistic values? Should these (older) values be given up in favour of servicing the new needs of a globalised society? Should the autonomy of educational organisations be given up in favour of creating educational institutions which provide human recourses for the global economy? The issue of institutional autonomy includes the issue of the personal and professional autonomy of the teachers as well.
The question of how teachers’ and women teachers’ cultural and social agency as active participants in the social changes could be analysed in the midst of uncertainties about the functions of education and about the roles of professional teachers is embedded in these tensions and debates. In this context, it is a crucial question whether educational theories and
their applications in the praxis of education can come up with interpretive analytical understandings of the situation. The analysis of international mainstream educational policies is important so as to find out how they affect the educational scene locally. It is also relevant to know whether the teacher themselves are able to reflect on their altered positions in education. If uncertainty prevails in regard to what the teachers’ primary tasks are then these issues should be brought to the forefront of educational research.
Teachers experience a lot of pressure from outside the educational system; as a result it may become more and more difficult for them to work out such professional identities which are in accordance with their own needs and values at the local institutional level and micro social level in their immediate socio cultural positions and contexts.
In the wider social setting, where the macro-level political (carrying symbolical power) factors permeate the social space, the positionalities of the two kinds of discourses that we have examined in this research are clearly identifiable on the scale of social power hierarchies.
It can be concluded that in the education theory and educational policy discourses the theme of the professionalisation of teaching is closely connected to the political needs of interpreting the role of education as a service sector of the national and global economy. This means that these discourses have given up the position of educational theories within the social sciences that is this positionality has become less decisive than the political one.
Together with this, the autonomy of the scientific study of education has become an astutely problematic issue: the political representation of the science itself as separate from educational policy development has become problematic.
If the social science emphasis was a determining factor in the „identity” of educational research and educational theory then we would witness the interdisciplinary presence of a variety of social science paradigms within educational research, particularly in the discussion of teachers’ identities and teachers’ professional and public roles. Consequently, it could be presumed that the topic of gender and gender theory as a theoretical approach would have appeared in the teacher research discourses. Instead, it can be conferred that normativity on the basis of political imperatives dominates the discourses to such an extent that it hinders the emergence of micro level researches. This phenomenon can also explain those results that women teachers do not participate in the teacher research discourses, since the normative discourses are experienced as oppressive discourses by them. This issue does not emerge as a conflicting issue in any way in the academic discourses of teacher research.
On the basis of the research results, we can conclude that women teachers are treated as a “second sex” in the discourses of educational theory and educational research on teachers’
identities, teachers’ roles and professionalism. This treatment is both rooted in the traditional patriarchal views on the teachers’ identities in education and the newly surfaced political discourse on the functions of education and on the nature of the professionalism of teachers.
Neither of the discourses is open to the inclusion of the understanding of plurality, multiplicity and the differences between social and cultural positions of individuals and groups of individuals, therefore the issues of ethnicity, social class and gender as constitutive factors are not examined as categories which are relevant in teacher research.
The women teachers’ discourses can be situated as discourses shared amongst themselves, therefore these are also not positioned in the academic discourses of teacher research. These discourses can be identified as the discourses of a low prestige social group of professionals, who are at the same time representatives of a group who are the carriers of traditional cultural values of high culture and “educatedness”. Additionally, this group is almost homogenous from the gender perspective, considering the high number of women in the teaching profession. The discourses of women teachers are also local discourses in which the prerogatives of the normative views of the educational theory and education policy are not echoed in any way. The causes of this kind of resistance to the mainstream theoretical and political discourses should require further analysis.
For women teachers the reference points of their identity formation as teachers are to be found in their institutional and micro-social and cultural environments. Based on the contents of the focus group discussions women teachers identify their teaching experiences and life experiences as positive sources of their professional identities. We can conclude that the interpersonal relations and the values and the beliefs which are formed in interpersonal interactions have a more decisive role in their teacher identity formation than the rhetoric of education policy on the significance competency, assessment, performance and effectiveness.
The women teachers’ description of their professional praxis is the following: it is developed in the course of gaining practical knowledge and experience in situ, through a lot of experimentation and reflexion, therefore this can be regarded as tacit knowledge which also includes a special kind of professional ethics. The qualities leadership, caring and creativity should also be emphasised.
The conflict between the two kinds of approaches towards what constitutes the professionalism of a teacher is that one represents the bottom up approach based on teachers’
experiences and with a fair amount of individual professional autonomy, the other follows the
top down developmental strategy of the educational system, responding to the needs of the changing world of work which requires flexible workforce, where the concepts of human recourses management are applied. Teachers are faced with a special kind of dilemma whether to fall back on the traditions of liberal education or accept and adapt themselves to the instrumental view of education and together with this acquire the professional identity of a teachers-technician and view the school as an institution for producing individuals who can become part of the versatile workforce in the economy.
This conflict of views on the objectives of education and the nature of teachers’
professionalism becomes even more complex with the insertion of the gender question into the analysis of the related issues. We assume that this conflict, when it is looked at from the perspective of women teachers raises yet additional questions. The questions of how they can make sure that the achievements of women’s social emancipation and social autonomy can remain intact in the course of these changes. Education and the teaching profession historically has been the scene of the cultural and social emancipation of women, however, the new neoliberal education discourse goes against these achievements when it tends to hegemonise the definition of what makes an educated person.
There is yet another problem adding to the complexity of the above described conflict:
the problem that the historical changes resulting in women’s social emancipation in Hungary are not thoroughly researched, and are not part of the public cultural discourses. The current public discourse could be well characterised by a backlash to an imagined feminist movement which never existed in Hungary in its full fledged form. The patriarchal and essentialised understandings of women’s roles and identities are widely accepted and supported. Therefore, the active social agent identities of women teachers could cause tensions in a public sphere where there is no tradition that can be identified for women to take leadership positions, social responsibly and decision making roles.
The conclusions of our research can be represented in the following table, to illustrate the examination of those gender binaries which define the mainstream discourses on the issues of education and teachers’ identities.
Figure 1: The notions which are clearly represented as gender dichotomy pairs in teacher research discourses and women teachers discourses
submission hegemony micro-social orientation macro-social orientation apolitical political praxis-oriented theory-oriented pragmatism awareness of values supporting (women’s) emancipation támogató traditional views on society
female
expect-
ed position
expect-
ed position
male
expect-
ed position
The categories of “female” and “male” indicate attitudes, behaviours and views, which are predominant in the discourses examined. This kind of categorisation is based on those statistical facts which show that the public spheres of politics, economy and science are dominated by men while such areas as public education, healthcare and social care typically remain to be women’s spheres.
Throughout the analysis of the research results we apply that theoretical approach, according to which gender is a category which arranges the individuals in dichotomous opposing positions within the social structures. This positioning creates identities, which are complementary to each other, and at the same time constitute each other. Therefore, we need to analyse how these positions are created in the social cultural professional discourses and how fixed these dichotomies are. If we find that these polarised characteristics are consistently present in each of the issues, then we can conclude that concerning those issues social stability can be observed. If the dichotomies are present inconsistently, then it is important to examine the source and the nature of the conflicting situation. The inconsistencies may indicate that there are incongruities in the social structures or they can be the indicators of the fact the issues that are examined are currently in a flux, therefore these issues can be the key areas of social changes. On the basis of the two empirical studies we
have carried out, we assume that the identification of the social status of women teachers in the academic educational theory and women teachers’ discourses is the same: women teachers belong to a low prestige, low status social group. The relevance of the gender category is reinforced by the fact that the position of men teachers is not in any way discussed or mentioned in the academic discourses. However, in the focus group interviews the women teachers brought up the issue of men’s obvious higher status within the ranks of the teaching profession.
The concept of hegemony as used in feminist theory and social theories can be well identified when the gender of those who are actors in the symbolic spaces of education theory is not considered to be relevant; there is no information available on the social positions of the researchers. The fact that the gender of the educational research community does not beco me a point in question indicates that the given position may be a relatively powerful one as compared to the other positions in the discourses on education. The gender question does not come up because of the predominance of male participants in that particular sphere. It is one of the characteristics of the discourses of science that the universal and unified concepts of researchers “are not supposed to have gender”, claiming that the clarification of the social position of the scientists would introduce subjectivity into the objective world of scientific research. But, in fact, this view disguises the domination of male participants.
When looking at the macro- and micro-social dualism, it can be concluded, on the basis of the content analysis of the educational science discourses, that the micro contexts of teachers and teachers’ communities are not considered relevant research areas in spite of the fact that a number of teacher research results point out the importance of the micro environment as the most decisive factor in their professional identity constructions. In these discourses the category of gender does not appear as an explanatory category. However, in the focus group discussions the women teachers thought their gender identities relevant in their professional identities. As a consequence, it seems that researching the micro contexts of women teachers and the identity formation of women teacher professionals in those contexts is a valid research area, for which ethnography can prove to be a useful research tool.
The political and apolitical opposition can be clearly identified in the examined discourses. The political angle and even the special vocabulary attached to it is present in the education policy texts and well as in some of the education theory texts. Often, the explicit presence of the necessity of changes corresponding to the needs of economy can be detected.
In this respect, the teachers’ gendered identities are not conceded relevant either. Some of the texts which discuss the new altered professional roles of teachers in the economy driven
educational setting are gender blind to such an extent that they use conflicting analogies and metaphors when describing the personalities and activities of the “new teachers”, e.g. father, master, Jesus Christ, computer expert.
The women teachers pointed out the lack of those fora and organisations which would represent their interests. They also noted that they had not learned the skills of advocacy and they did not see when and where they could learn such skills. The analysis of this question would go beyond the scope of educational research, since this research would mean to find out more about the state of affairs in civic society and civic education.
One can conclude that there is no dialogue between the academic and public education spheres and there are no intersections between the two discourses, because the teacher identity discourse of the academic sphere is set in the paradigmatic frameworks of social psychology, cognitive psychology and relies heavily on the theoretical traditions of educational theory on teachers desired personalities attitudes and character traits. This treatment of teachers’
identities fit well within the educational policy development issues concerning teachers’
professionalism. These discourses remain at a theoretical level and deal with the personality and identity of a teacher on the basis of abstract ideal qualities and characteristics of individuals also reinforces the gender blindness of theses discourses even in such situations when the category of gender would provide an explanation for the phenomenon which is found to be significant. E.g. in the case of the repressive and sensitive categorisation of teachers’ personalities and characteristics, there is a nice fit with the categories of female and male in that given research analysis. There is yet another example, in the study of the social mobilisation of teachers where the variable on which teachers’ mobility is tested is the professional and social background of the fathers.
It can be claimed that the absence of gender mainstreaming policies in education could be derived from the theoretical tradition that in the field of education gender is not an issue because of the high number of women teachers and because there is no gender segregation in public education. In the focus group discussion, the participants did not specifically discuss the gender equity policy issues. However, when they discussed those circumstances in which their problem solving skills and their student centred attitudes were revealed, then they claimed that these skills proved to be useful when dealing with differences and inequalities among students. It can be concluded that the women teachers can recognise the need for policies that would target equality issues in education.
Several women teachers claimed that their professional identities had been influenced by their family, friends and by their personal and professional experiences. The immediate
social contexts are the determining factors in their identities, therefore, policy measures should be developed in such a way that teacher experiences are counted on.
The pragmatic and value oriented dichotomy refers to the value orientation of education. It can be concluded that in the academic discourses in the case of teachers’
identities there is a mix of values of humanist philosophy and of the pragmatic skills orientation. However, apart from the cognitive elements, there are also affective elements in teachers’ identities which can be relatively pronouncedly identified, i.e. the prescription and expectation of the presence of affective element in teacher personalities. Those texts which are clearly competency oriented normative texts about the qualities of professionalism in teaching do not seem to include any guidelines on values. However, in their hidden subtexts there is a value system which can be implicitly identifies and analysed as connected to the value orientation of the economic usefulness discourse. These values are discussed without any mention of the category of gender. In the focus group discussion of women teachers, it is clearly evidenced that they are fully committed to the humanist traditions of education as for the knowledge content and the behaviours and attitudes that education should convey to the students. They are convinced that the values that they hold important as individuals should also be expressed in their professional activities. They also highlight the significance of interpersonal communication and the values that are created in the course of communication and in human relations.
The educational theory discoursers contain some discussions within the history of education on women’s history of education, women’s social roles and participation in the public sphere. It is well presented that education was a primarily means of women’s emancipation in the Hungarian cultural history. However, the analysis of present day women’s issues in education are absent from the academic discourses. There is no mention of the fact how the phenomenon of glass ceiling and glass lift are present in the institutional structures of education and how it is related to the male and female identity of teachers.
Therefore, our conclusion is that the theoretical views and scientific approaches themselves rely on a traditional patriarchal concepts of science and social science and this may also apply to the research practices. The women teachers, however, raised these issues of structural barriers for women from two aspects, i.e. the presence of gendered structural obstacles in the social system. The participants of the focus groups refer to the fact several times that in the educational institutions men could be more frequently found in decision making positions that is in higher positions. They point out that the professional sphere of policy development and decision making in education in a male dominated sphere. The other obstacle – in their view
is the lack of opportunities for carrier building in the teaching profession. We presume that this absence of career building opportunities in public education is also related to the gendered social status of teachers. While the dilemma of private and public is a vital issue and a well articulated issue for the women teachers themselves, this topic is not in any way present even in the sociological statistical surveys on teachers’ lifestyles. Nevertheless, women teachers are clearly aware of the problems of women’s participation in the public spheres. They recognise the differences in women’s roles in society and the characteristics and qualities that women need to have in order to participate in the public sphere. Concerning the issues of political participation and participation in the civil society, however, the women teachers share traditional patriarchal views.
If we go through the series of dichotomies, then we can find that the gendered opposites can be identified quite consistently in all of the questions that we have examined. It can be concluded that both the academic discourses on teachers and women teachers and the praxis of education are embedded in a relatively stable social setting, structurally the hierarchies are secure and fixed. However, there are two areas where further research should be carried out represented by the last two rubrics of Table 1.
The inconsistency in the first case may be explained by the fact, that women teachers do not identify with the achievements of women’s emancipation and as a consequence, they are not familiar with or do not know about their opportunities for social action and active political participation. There are at least three dimensions to be looked at in this phenomenon. Firstly, the general conservative cultural climate of the macro-level society encourages this blindness to feminist thinking and political action; secondly women teachers have no opportunities to take part in regular education on gender issues, since in the Hungarian universities there are no regular gender studies programmes available this is also typical of the teacher education programmes. Thirdly, women’s social emancipation in the post-socialist era is full of tensions because their emancipation is linked to the politics and social policies of state socialism where this social emancipation was experienced by women and men as a top down state activity as compare to the western experience of bottom up social movements women’s and feminist movements. All of these factors are sources of the complexities of the present day problems concerning women and women teachers which are to be studied in depth.
It can be thought even more problematic that on the male side of the rubrics in Table 1., there are inconsistencies in two categories. If we work with the assumption that both the education policies and the politics of educational science are more determined by outside power factors, then this is particularly problematic in the field of educational theory. The
discipline of educational science rather than following an autonomous developmental route of the academic discourses within the social sciences, tends to be governed by short term pragmatic incentives. This pragmatism, however, should mean that educational policies integrate the other EU policies, i.e. the gender mainstreaming guidelines should be manifestly present in the academic and policy development discourses on education. This is not the case, however. The gender mainstreaming guidelines and policies initiated at an European Union level are not integrated into in social policies in Hungary, so much so that there is no official translation available for the phrase available.
Based on our research the following results are the ones on the basis of which further and in depth analyses should be developed:
1. In the discourses of educational theory and educational research teachers’ identities are predominantly discussed in a normative manner, certain characteristics –which are thought to be preferred characteristics for teachers are highlighted and, to a certain extent, teachers’ beliefs are tackled, however the gender perspective does not surface.
There is no evidence for the application of the concepts and theories borrowed from the interdisciplinary social science discourses. Therefore, the complexities of teachers’
identities set in a variety of socio-cultural environments remain hidden together with this the gender aspects of professional identities are also scarcely touched upon.
2. There is very little to be known about women teachers’ identities generally, but even less information is available on the women teachers’ voices on the subject in the educational theory texts. This can explain the fact that women teachers themselves do not consider these texts as authoritative and useful text that could inform them on their identity formation as teachers. Gender is a crucial category in the maintenance of social distance, of the hegemony of the academic sphere and of the subordinate position of the educational praxis sphere. Therefore, it is important to investigate the influences of the social hierarchy present in education, which can be identified among theoreticians and practising teachers. The imbalance in social power may be the cause for the exclusion of gender issues in education.
3. The women teachers themselves find the theoretical and educational policy discourses mostly irrelevant in their everyday practice and regarding their professional identities.
They think that the macro-social spheres have a negative impact on their work and on their professional status. Presumably these spheres do not offer such opportunities which would enable women teachers to participate as social actors and social agents – or they do not identify themselves as such in these spheres. This position that the
women teachers take in the issue functions as an indication for many other problems arising for the public private divide of society and women’s status in society. The participants of the focus group interviews confirmed that they are influenced by the individuals present in their immediate surroundings, their views and beliefs are shaped by the influences provided in the micro-social setting. They also draw on their life histories when they form their professional identity as teachers.
4. They do not identify themselves as active participants in educational decision making.
Nevertheless, they claim that creativity and innovation are part of their experiences as women teachers. The focus group participants emphasises the functional role and the collective nature of creativity and innovation in their work experiences. It is important to note that according to their views, the topic of creativity is not as much gender
“stigmatised” as many other issues in education. (e. g. caring and leadership). This means that the question of creativity can be identified as a nodal point in our research and should be further explored since it seems to be the source of the positive experiences for women teachers. The characteristics of their creativity, the results and practices of creative activities should be identified in further studies.
5. The women teachers can readily identify the advantages that men teachers enjoy in the teaching profession and in the larger social context, however they are unable to reflect on their own values and capacities which may enhance their professional identities as women. It does not follow from this that there are no values and capacities that women represent or that there are no issues that would typically concern women teachers because of their gender. It may be a more valid conclusion that when it comes to professional discussions in the public sphere – which fall outside the “safe territory”
of personal experience and micro environment women teachers do not have the vocabulary and do not have the communicative skills to be able to articulate their views and desires.
4. PUPLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS
Chapters in Books:
(The Interdisciplinary Links between Gender Studies and Teacher Education) A társadalmi nemek tudománya a neveléstudományban és a tanárképzés/pedagógusképzés
pedagógiájában. In A társadalmi nemek oktatása Magyarországon.” Szerk. Pető Andrea.
Ifjúsági, Családügyi, Szociális és Esélyegyenlőségi Minisztérium, Budapest, 2006. pp.
117-126.
Gender Representations in Educational Materials in the Period of Transition in Hungary. In Beyond Civic Society: Education and Civic Culture in Post-Communist Countries. (eds.) Stephen Webber and Ilkka Liikanen, Houndsmills, UK: Pelgrave, 2001. pp. 124-141.
Papers Published in International Journals and in Edited Collections of Articles:
Constructing Gender in Hungarian Cultural Discourses in the 1990s. In D. Knezevic, K. Dilic
& A. Dabbs (Eds.), Women in Politics: "Feminism(s) With an Eastern Touch"( pp. 83- 273). Dubrovnik: Zenska Infoteka. 2000. (horvát, angol és német nyelven)
Women in Hungary in Times of Social and Cultural Transition. Hungarian Studies Review, 26(1-2), 39-58., Toronto, Canada. 1999. (Special volume: Women and Hungary:
Reclaiming Images and Histories. Edited by M. Kadar and A. Schwartz.) Teaching Women's Studies in Hungary. In G. Jähnert (Ed.), Frauen in den ehemals
sozialistischen Ländern. Humboldt University Bulletin, No. 14 (pp. 89-98). Berlin:
Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Frauenforschung der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 1996.
Peer Reviewed Papers Published in National Journals:
(How do Teacher Apply Gender Equity in Pedagogy?) Mennyire jártasak a pedagógusok az esélyegyenlőség pedagógiájában? In: Iskolakultúra. 2011. tél, 12. sz. pp. 60-72.
(Paradigms in Educational Theory from the Perspective of Gender Studies) A
neveléstudományi- és oktatástudományi paradigmákról - a társadalmi nemek elméleti kereteibe foglalva. In: Educatio 2007. tél, 16. évf. 4. sz. pp. 623-636.
(Women’s Studies and Gender Studies) A nőtudomány és a társadalmi nemek tudománya. I- II. rész. In: Magyar Felsőoktatás. 2002/3-4. pp. 50-51, 47-48.
(Sexual Harassment as a Social Phenomenon) A szexuális zaklatás mint társadalmi jelenség.
In Belügyi Szemle. 2000. 4-5. sz. pp. 14-23.
(Traditional Pedagogy vs. Feminist Pedagogy) „Hagyományos” pedagógia, feminista pedagógia. In Educatio, 1996. ősz, 5. évf. 3. sz., pp. 404-416.
Other Articles Published in Hungary:
Gendering the School Curriculum: Approaches to Hungarian Educational Policies from a Gender Studies Perspective. In: Voices – A Collection of Working Papers. Ed: Zsuzsa N.
Tóth. Department of English for Teacher Education, School of English and American Studies. ELTE, Budapest, 2004. pp. 61-72.
Papers Presented at National Conferences:
(Beliefs about Male Elementary School Teachers in the Feminised World of Education)
„Milyen férfi tanító kép él az iskolák feminizált világa résztvevőinek gondolkodásában?”
(Frank Tamással közös előadás) "Humántudományi kutatások a pedagógusképzés szolgálatában – Generációk találkozása" VI. Képzés és Gyakorlat Nemzetközi Neveléstudományi Konferencia, Nyugat-magyarországi Egyetem Benedek Elek Pedagógiai Kar, Sopron, 2012. április 12.
"Teaching and Learning the Concepts and Practices of Gender Equity in Initial and In-Service Teacher Education." 2nd International Conference for Theory and Practice in Education:
Teaching and Learning. Budapest, 2009. május 9.
(Ethnographic Research on Gender in Education) „Az etnográfia módszere és alkalmazásának lehetőségei az "oktatás és gender" kutatásban.” Oktatás és iskolázottság - nemi
egyenlőtlenségek. 2008. szeptember 11-12. Az MTA Nevelésszociológiai, Neveléstörténeti, Oktatásszociológiai albizottsága és az MSZT Oktatásszociológiai szakosztálya konferenciája.
(Gender and Educational Policies) „A társadalmi nem kérdése az oktatáspolitikában – a tanterv és a tankönyvjóváhagyás szerepe.” Egyéni sors és kutatói karrier. Nők és tudomány konferencia. 2006. november 16. Budapest, Tudományos és Technológiai Alapítvány.
(Women Teachers’ Identity Construction) „Pedagógus-nők identitás konstrukciójának nyelvi megjelenítése a tanárképzés szakmai szövegeiben.” A nő helye a magyar nyelvhasználatban:
„Nyelv, ideológia, média” Konferencia. Szeged, 2005. szeptember 8-9.
(Educational Theory Paradigms from a Feminist Theory Perspective)„Neveléstudományi paradigmák társadalomképe feminista elméletek tükrében.” Társadalmi nemek és az oktatási rendszer. Konferencia. TársadalmiNem- és Kultúrakutató Központ, Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, 2004. december 3.
(Gender Equity in Education) „A nemek esélyegyenlősége a közoktatásban.” A Drága gyermek c. svéd kiállításhoz kapcsolódó szeminárium. Nők és Férfiak Társadalmi Egyenlősége Igazgatóság, Esélyegyenlőségi Kormányhivatal, 2004. május 14.
(Learning about Women’s Culture in Teacher Education)„A nők teremtette kultúra
tanulásának lehetőségei a tanárképzésben.” „Laikus olvasás és populáris kultúra” konferencia.
Dayka Gábor Társaság, Budapest, 2004. május 13-14.
(Educational Reforms without Reforming Teacher Education) „Közoktatási reform – a tanárképzés reformja nélkül. Milyen szerepet játszik a tanári pálya „elnőiesedése” ennek a helyzetnek a legitimizálásában?” Erőszak és nemek. A társadalmi nemek kutatása
Magyarországon az ezredfordulón. Konferencia. BKÁE TársadalmiNem- és Kultúrakutató Központ, Budapest, 2003. október 27-29.
(The Place of Gender Studies in Higher Education) „A társadalmi nem tanulmányozásának helye a felsőoktatásban”, Nő és férfi, férfi és nő - A társadalmi nemek kutatása az
ezredfordulón – konferencia, TársadalmiNem- és Kultúrakutató Központ, Budapesti Közgazdaságtudományi és Államigazgatási Egyetem, Budapest, 2002.
(Feminist Pedagogy in Higher Education) „Feminista pedagógia a felsőoktatásban", Megosztott Világ 2: A nemek kutatásának alakulása a közelmúltban Magyarországon – konferencia, a Magyar Szociológiai Társaság, az MTA Szociológiai Kutatóintézet és az ELTE Szociálpolitikai Intézet Gender Studies Programjának rendezésében, 2002.
(The Socialisation of Girls in Public Education) „A női szerep szocializációja az oktatásban- nevelésben” Megosztott Világ Konferencia - MTA Társadalmi Konfliktusokat Kutató Intézete, 1995.
Papers Presented at International Conferences:
"The Position of Gender Studies in the Hungarian Academia" 4th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education Oxford Brookes University, UK. 31st August, - 3rd September 2005.
"Constructing Gender in the Hungarian Cultural Discourses in 1990s", Women and Politics Conference: Feminism(s) with an Eastern Touch, Zenska Infoteka and Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2000.
"Cultural Feminism as an Alternative Vehicle of Social Change in Hungary", Women’s Worlds ’99, 7th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Tromso, Norway, 1999.
"Women's Changing Public and Private Identities in the Time of Political Transitions in Hungary", Conference: Losers of the “Wende” – Winners of the EU? Participation of Women: Chances and Effects of the Transformation Process in Central Eastern Europe.
Vienna, Austria, 1998.
"Public and Private Spaces of Women in Hungary in the 1990s", Hungarian Studies Association of Canada Conference, Ottawa, Canada, 1998.
"Gender and English Language Teacher Education in Hungary", ELTECS - Third Central European Teacher Education Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 1998.
"Glimses of Hungarian Feminist Thought: Past and Present”, 3rd European Feminist Research Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, 1997.
"Gender Representations in Educational Materials in the Period of Transition in Hungary", International Sociological Association Mid-term Conference of the Sociology of Education Research Committee (RC 04) "Education, Knowledge and Culture", Joensuu, Finland, 1997.
