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A Mid- To Late Twentieth-Century Case Study of a Male Public School Professional

A case study analyzing gender privilege and cultural shifts in the Ontario school system.

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    GENDER PRIVILEGE AND THE CULTURE OF THE ONTARIO SCHOOL SYSTEM: A MID - TO LATE TWENTIETH - CENTURY CASE STUDY OF A MALE PUBLIC SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL Analyze the experiences of Barry Jackson as a teacher and principal in Ontario between the 1950s and 1980s, focusing on the social, economic, and gender - related factors that influenced his career. How do his experiences both conform to and diverge from the broader trends identified in the research by Reynolds (1990, 1995) and other scholars in educational history? In your response, discuss the role of credentialism, the gender dynamics in the profession, and the impact of local school board organization on Barry’s career development. Word count requirement: 1,500 - 2,000 words

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    This study uses an adapted public history methodology of a local case study to analyze interviews conducted with a former Ontario teacher and principal. It draws on literature and historical documents regarding teaching between the 1950s – 1980s to examine the typical experience of public school professionals in that time and discuss structural trends and beliefs regarding credentialism, local school board organization, and gender in the Ontario education system. Since a publicly financed education system was established throughout Canada in the nineteenth century, the educational policies and regulations governing teachers, students, and curriculum have been the jurisdiction of the provinces. As many researchers, such as Cavanagh (2003), have noted, within the province of Ontario, the working conditions of individual teachers varied widely until the 1960s. This was primarily the result of vague provincial legislation which allowed regional school boards and communities to determine the specific responsibilities of teachers, negotiate salaries, and fund schools. Across Ontario, the organization of school boards varied before the 1950s. Schools were grouped into city or county districts or inspectorates. Within the inspectorate divisions, there was little consistency in the organizational structure. Generally, each inspectorate was composed of numerous school boards. The guidelines governing school board boundaries were hazy, but each school board usually had at least one open school (Ontario Department of Education [ODE], 1953). In his book, The Schools of Ontario, 1876 – 1976 , Stamp (1982) described how the Department of Education pushed towards increased centralization in the late 1950s and early 1960s. School boards were amalgamated into township - sized boards and larger central schools

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    were constructed. Only a few years later, these boards were again amalgamated into countywide boards. The historical “independence of local school boards,” the “provincial constitutional autonomy in education,” and “the relative paucity of research in educational history,” contribute to Harrigan’s (1986) conclusion that “it is within . . . local case studies that we find some of the most informative research” (p. 81). As a result, I have chosen to explore the experience of public school professionals by focusing on one subject, my maternal grandfather Barry Jackson. In this analysis, I adapt the public hist ory methodological style to explore Barry’s career using two recorded interviews conducted with Barry in March 2010, and drawing from historical accounts and studies on the teaching profession, including research by Reynolds (1990,1995). To date, Reynolds has conducted one of the most comprehensive analyses of teachers who became principals in Ontario between the 1940s and 1980s. Reynolds interviewed male and female principals in the Toronto school board (approximately 220 km away from Barry’s home town). While attempts have been made not to over - generalize the typicality of the Toronto teachers, comparisons between Barry’s experiences and those of Reynolds’ interviewees do allows for hypotheses to be constructed regarding the typicality of Barry’s experiences. I focus on the start of his career in the 1950s, his decision to pursue professional qualifications, and his promotion to principalship as I explore how his experiences both confirm and reject the “typical” experience of public school professionals fr om the 1950s to the 1980s. Barry’s career in education highlights the culture of Ontario’s rural school system at the mid - twentieth century. Barry’s account of how he was hired as a teacher, his decision to make teaching his career, and why he became a principal also highlight the pervasive gender imbalances within the profession. In many ways, Barry’s experiences were typical of male teachers at the time, but male teachers

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    were only a small percent of the teaching force, and this minority had a markedly different experience when compared to female teachers. Kenneth Barry Jackson was born on March 17, 1934, on the family homestead at Paudash Lake, near Bancroft, Ontario. In this rural area, lumber was one of the main industries. Barry’s father, Gord, was a lumberman and a farmer. Gord only attended school to Grade 8 but was a very intelligent man. Barry’s mother, Ruby, was a teacher. Ruby taught before the birth of her first child, and she returned to teaching on an occasional basis in the 1950s. According to research conducted by Reynolds (1990), Barry’s family background was much like the background of most teachers at the time. Reynolds (1990) found that the fathers of the individuals who became teachers in the 1950s and 1960s were often clerical workers, labourers, or farmers. Like Barry, their mothers were often employed before marriage. Furthermore, like 71% of Ontario teachers in 1961, Barry’s ethnic background is British. As Reynolds (1990) noted, the percentage of educators of British ancestry was more than 10% higher than the percentage of individuals of British ancestry in the Ontario labour force (p. 117). Various coincidences led to Barry beginning his career as a teacher. Barry had not planned on becoming a teacher (personal communication, March 3, 2010). At nineteen years old, and having been one of the few youth in his community to complete Grade 13, Barry postponed finding a job after graduation. Instead, he decided to concentrate on playing in his all - star Ontario baseball team until the season was over. Barry believed that having completed Grade 13 he could get any entry - level job he wanted. He assumed he would work in the hydroelectric industry or with Bell Canada. Instead, his career in education began fortuitously when, two weeks before the school year began, the district inspector phoned and offered Barry a position teaching a one - room schoolhouse in Ormsby, Ontario. Barry believes there were three reasons why the inspector

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    decided to approach him with the job offer: he knew Barry had finished Grade 13, he knew Ruby was a teacher, and he knew Barry was familiar with the culture of rural schools, having attended one himself (personal communication, March 3, 2010). Barry accepted the offer and was sent to work in Ormsby where he was responsible for teaching forty - one students in Grades 1 to 8 (personal communication, March 3, 2010). This was above the average student to teacher ratio in Canada. According to Harrigan (1992), the average ratio was 1 teacher per 28 students in 1950, and 1 teacher per 27 students in 1955. Being well above the average was somewhat due to the rural school system at the time, which struggled with the difficulties brought on by the low population density and lack of centralized township schools. This high ratio was somewhat normal, as Harrigan (1992) noted, “historically Ontario ha[d] the highest ratio” of students per teacher in Canada and “these maintained over time until 1960” (p. 505). Barry was able to be employed as a teacher without any training because he had a letter of permission from the Department of Education (ODE, 1953). As Cavanagh (2003) noted, the Minister of Education gave these letters to men and women, granting them permission “to teach in Ontario schools without any kind of teacher training” (p. 43). Letters of permission were very common when Barry began teaching in 1953. According to the Ontario Department of Education (1953) records, 16 of the 66 teachers in Barry’s inspectorate were working with letters of permission. Stamp (1982) noted that letters of permission were granted in high numbers in

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    response to the “crisis in teacher supply” (p. 198) caused by the post - war baby boom. This demographic shift meant that when Barry graduated Grade 13 in 1953 there was a record number of children starting school. The letters of permission system was one way that the province tried to combat the teacher shortage. However, this letter appears to have been a mere formality and had little effect on Barry. When asked if he applied for the letter of permission, Barry laughed and replied, “Oh no. I didn’t even know I had one!” (personal communication, March 11, 2010). Barry’s decision to take his first teaching job and later to make the profession his career, was supported by his family in a manner that appears to be atypical of the experiences of male teachers in the 1950s. In the interviews Reynolds (1995) conducted, the men who became teachers between 1930 and 1970 expressed how “others' reactions to their choice to teach was often problematic” (p. 134). The men “all agreed that little social acceptance had been accorded their decision to become a teacher” (p. 99 – 100). One male interviewee recalled, “My father thought it was terrible. . . . He said: ‘Why the hell, they’re all women down there’” (p. 101). Reynolds (1995) concludes that the typical male teachers who began working between 1930 and 1970 found that “becoming teachers . . . contravened many of the extra - organizational rules they and others understood about manhood. The benefits of teaching and the security it offered, however, still made it attractive” (p. 135). Barry’s experiences both conform to and reject this characterization. For Barry, his decision to become a teacher did not meet the same social disapproval that Reynolds described. When asked what motivated him to become a teacher, Barry recalls, I had never thought of being a teacher. . . . I was . . . playing ball, and just going, and the only thing was my mum said, “Why don’t you try it? You have nothing else to do.” And I thought, “okay, why not?” I never thought of being a teacher until . . . they asked. No planning or like that

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