Women Elementary School Teachers in Turkey: Continuity and Change in the Formation of a Gender Identity vis a vis Professional Ideologies and State Policies
Author: Asli Coban , asli.cob@gmail.com
Department: Sociology
University: Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ayse Nur Saktanber
Year of completion: 2018
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
gender and generations
, professional identity
, teaching
Areas of Research:
Women in Society
, Education
, Professional Groups
Abstract
Elementary-school teaching has come to be considered as proper and respectable occupation for women. Main reason for this is the imagined harmony and
complementarity between the nature of womanhood and early-grades teaching, house and classroom, and housework and classroom work. This cultural convention
constructing (proper) womanhood and elementary school teaching with reference to each other has created a modern past for the nations, where histories of the
profession and of women appear interwoven.
This thesis looks closer to the near past and current dynamics of the feminization in the profession which has taken place mostly upon neoliberal transformation. It analysis the gender regime of the profession and the continuities and changes therein throughout the experiences of three generations: Graduates of pre-faculty teacher education institutions, faculty graduates, and those who met the KPSS (PPSE) grade criterion in assignment during times of teacher unemployment. Findings of the study indicate that the female respectability codes once dominated the gender regime has been debilitated in the occupation, with both negative and positive consequences for women’s empowerment.
