Productive Tensions: Feminist Readil~gs for Women Teachers9 Oral Histories

Kristina R. Llewelly~l

According to Sandra Hasding, the best feminist work ensures that research is grounded in women's experiences. i~icludes the power relations between researchers and researched. and works towards the eli~nination of patiiarchal oppression.l While these commonalities a e pronounced in most feminist studies. feminist reseuchers study fi-om diverse and contested epistemological

7 positions.- 111 recent years, contests over the differences between poststs~lct~iralis~n and materialism have talten precedence in the quest for 'the best feminist work.' Poststructuralist feminists demarcate their work by asserting. as Barbara Johnson notes. that gender is a question of language that can only be subjectively deconstructed within local co~i tex t s .~ In contrast. rnateiialist f e~~~in i s t s , such as Jennifer Wiclte, insist that an examination of- material conditions, both domestic and inciustsial production. is the bases for reveali~lg the r n e ~ ? : and definable pri~iciples that produce gender hierarchy. As feminist researcher of women teacl~ers' oral histories, I declared my loyalties within the constructed binary of poststi-ucturalis~ii versus matelialism. The focused analysis of poststr~~ct~~ralists 011 the narl-ative form of scripts fit with ~ n y attempts for meaning-m~~lting fro111 women teachers' oral histories. 1 did not heed Juditll Butler's wa~ning regarding the propensity for contemporary fe~ni~lists to exaggerate 'difference' amongst their woi-k. She writes: "the question of whether 01- not a position is right is in this case. less informative than why it is we come to occupy and defend the tel-sitory we do.

9 0 Orvrl Hislor?, For-rr~n / Forrrr71 rl'hisroir-r or-ole

what it promises ~ 1 s . " ~ In light of this statement, it is important to question: Does a feminist reading of wornen teachers' oral histories benefit from a poststriict~iralist versus mateiialist analysis or from an integrated frameworlc?

A feminist reading of the histoiiography of wonlen teachers' oral histories, which integrates the strengths o f poststruct~iralist and materialist feminism, provides productive tensions for historians seeking to explore the complex relatiolls o f power that create meaning malting. When examining women's oral histories. Joan Sangster argues that historians should be concerned about the dangers of poststruct~iralists' propensity Soi- "folm over context. of stressiilg deconstr~iction of individual narratives over analysis of social patterns. oi' disclailnillo our duty as historian to analyze and interpret women's stoiies."g Equally dangerous are implications fi-om matel-ialists' work that they impose gmnd nan-atives for political expediency, and define powei- as that which is 'objective,' econo~nic or unified. A feminist poststlncturalist and materialist reading of \vomen teachers' oral histol-ies challenges the simplicity of generalizing theoretical traditions. and, more importantly. the need for a feminist ciitique that is 'right' according to extreme theoretical catego~ies .~ 111 its place. an integrated allalysis provides a feminist critique of oral history that encourages historians to. as Marjorie Theobald describes, work within layers of memory. rather than beyond them: a point at which women's narratives can expose and destabilize essentialist tropes or myths inscribed by the male dominance. 8

Poststructi~ralist feminists seek to destabilize male dominance. in part. by reading women's oral histories as a process of histolical lo~owledge. thr-ough which ivomen malce sense or meaning of their lives.9 Nmatives are thus treated as linguistic constructions and historical texts which. open to multiple intelpretations. can provide evidence of ho\v women conceptualize their past experiences or relationships to the social world. Jacques Derrida argues that life as text accentuates the notion that there is no clear window into the inner life of a pel-son. because a window is always filtered through the glaze of language. and processes of

signification.10 Experience as interpreted through oral history is thus a fluctuating 'trutl~' that exists witllin the layers of life as it happens. life as it is told b the subject, and life as n a ~ a t i v e inteipreted by the historian. The role of the oral histoiian, even if it were possible, is not to provide the facts of female teacl-~ei-s' pasts; rather it is to ailalyze the way historic knowledge is created through the production of discourse as it is informed by their experiences and subject locations.

Poststructuralist feminists argue that oral history as evidence, set withi11 a text, call lead to the recoi~ceptualizatioi~ of the study of women's work in education. Richard Quantz's study of the failure of female teachers' unionization in Hamilton, Ohio, during the 1930s provides an illustration. He reintelprets traditional historical clailns that rely purely 011 sh.~icti~~-aI or inatei-ial explailatioils with respect to professional associations (the failure of unionization as a result of weak ties to labour, and harsh economic times). I' Quantz argues that while larger forces shape the story. the event ill question can only be f ~ ~ l l y understood 111roug11 an analytic foundation that includes women who lived and their discursively coilstructed sub-jectivities. Contrlu-y to structurally based studies. he demonstrates that failure to ini ionize was 1101

because women teachers were i i i ~ k ~ l o w i ~ ~ g tools 01 the educational elite 01- made claims to an altruistic puil~ose for opposing unions. Instead. Quantz illustrates that women organized their realities arouild cultural concepts. such as viewing the school as family and a legitimate female institution. which provided tl~ein wit11 a perception of ower that made external professional associations umecessaryl Q~1ana.s study ends by noting that he has provided temporal conclusions from patterns within the women's narratives of that time and place, and tllose inconsistencies are an inherent part of teachers' subjectivities.

Histo~ian ]<ate Rousmaniere frames her nai-I-ative of teachers' diverse meanings of and relatioilships to wol-lc in similar tenns. refusing to reinsc~ibe an esseiltialist 'teachel-.' 111 her booli. entitled City Teachers: Teaching and School Reform in Histoiical Perspective, Rousinaniere argues that historical scholarship has

remained relatively silent about the diversity of women teachers' work, as accounts regarding tlie messiness of life inside schools ue missing. She argues that traditio~lally histolians have ~nisread co~ldi t io~~s of women teachers' wolk, n a ~ o w l y defining it a s factory-like labour constrained by ~natelial structures, namely. prescriptive policy and cull-icula. She implies, in part, that this i s due to lnaterial feminists not listening to the language and the recurring echoes of meaning found in teachers' narratives. Through an ethnographic examination of teachers' experiences o f worli i l l New Yosk scl~ools, she refutes arguments that sc11001~ became rationalizecl, orderly. a ~ l d fina~lcially efficient i ~ i s t i t ~ ~ t i o ~ l s dusing the 1920s' 'Progressive Era.. l4 As she looks ".sideways into the picture presented.in order to identify teachers' motivations. feelings. and reactions." Rousmaniere illustrates that women teachers interpreted administrators' concept of 'progress' as more intense labour, divisions among teachel-s, and different meanings 01- ordes.15 In addition. i t also meant an adaptive work coltnre by wllicll female teachers sporadically accommodated or resisted their c o ~ ~ d i t i o ~ ~ s . Rousmaniere's narative is, at times, an unrelenting fonn of historical advocacy for teachers. She provides. howevei-. an illuminating concluding point: for refonn to be effective in sc11ools. in 1920s New York or present contexts, teachers' needs must be heard amongst tlie voices of educational refo~mers and historical texts.16 For Rousmaniere n11d Quantr, it is the historian.s job to explore knowledge as a linguistic representation of life which when studied provides clues, pattenis. and themes that speak to how women teachers. in relation to a multitude of co~illictii~g 'truths' and 'voices'. ~ ~ ~ ~ d e r s t o o d and acted upon their sui-soundings.

This poststructuralist conceptual stance I-ejects an empiricist view of the past as objectively fixable t11ro~1g11 the scie~~tiijc pursuit of hcts a17d a s i l l g ~ ~ l ; ~ ; universal trut11.17 ~t thereby ~indem~ines traditionally ~ilale-based scientific claims to authority over knowledge. including biological detel-lninisin oi' gender dispal-ities. At the same time, this li-ame~vork rejects the atteni1)tmf feminist empilicists to reinscribe objectivist notions o f 'woman' through the e l i ~ ~ i i ~ ~ a t i o ~ ~ of male bias in the sciences. IS

All knowledge, iiicluding that of the women participating in research, is subject to deconstruction aiid scepticism. Materialist feminist I-eseaschers have argued that poststructuralist suspicion of all truth claims are disingeiiuous and politically untenable for a feminist agenda that seeks to research froin and for women. Roberta Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmaiin are c~itical of ally feminist epistemological position that does not claim scientific credibility and generalizability. Without sucll evidence, they argue, they would be discredited in policy debates and unable to actualize feminist goals for political reform.19 Dollna Haraway rnakes a similar argu~neiit claiining that feiniilist poststructuralists fall into a dangerous tell-j to]-y of relativism. which is the "perfect nnil~or twin of totalizatioii in tlie ideologies of objectivity; both deny the stakes of location. embodiment, and partial perspective: both nlalce it iinpossible to see I11 her research. Haraway reclaims the ilotioii of objectivity which she defines as Peminists' articulation of subjugated howledges.?l She asserts tliat partial penpectives. as a way of seeing. enable accessible communication aiiioiig feminist

77 researchers for change in the 'real' world of women.--

Coilsideriilg such calls for a strong political feminist agenda. the seduction for many oral histo~ians has been to write a descriptive, coliereiit story tliat privileges the seemingly transparent Icnowledge of Such iia~atives are Sounded on the belies. articulated by Paul Thoii~psoii, that ".transforming tlie 'ob-jects' of study into 'subjects', mcakes for a liistor which is not just richel; 7 . mose vivid and heartrending. but tr i~er."-~ Alice Duffy Rinehart's study Mortals in tlie Immortal Profession: An Oral History of Teaching works ti-om such a standpoint. Rinehart produces an extensive compilation of 38 interviews by \vomen who had worked in various Aiiie~-ica~l scliools thronghout their lifetii~ie.'~ She covers a number 01 important issr~es such as reasons for entering teaching. family background and major political events a-fl'ecting e d u c a t i o ~ i . ~ ~ Uiilhrt~inately, Rillehart presents oral histories as re~i~iniscences or aiiecdotal personal insights. instead of sa-utinjzing them within a theoretical context. Rineh~u-t's failure Lo analyze the 'histoiical knowledge' in teachers' narratives inisses the

complex relatio~ls of power, both privilege and subordination, which underlie the dynamics of meaning making for women's experiences in education. Valorizing women teachers in an effos-t to let them tell their story is realized at the dangerous cost o f depicting their narratives as another fol-ln of constrained consciousness silnilar to conservative rhetoric of teachers' apolitical subjectivities. Essentially, Rinehart does 1101 treat lnelnory as an unstable basis for women teachers' k~lowledge, a basis on which the historian must exanline the contradictions and silences for the structuling paradio~ns and processes that shape their individual and collective pasts.2S It is only through a respectful scepticis111 about narratives. that woinen teachers and histoiians will be able to find patterns in their voices to collectively deconstruct the power relations that shape the educational system.

Carefill not to privilege a singular felnilline 'voice'. the oral historian can foreground Haraway's demands for the exposure and location of power relations in the relationship between researchers and researched. As such, ~naterial feminists' concern to provide a platPol-~n for political activism based 011 intei-rogation 01' power relations can be realized. In fact, Michel Foucault, an unwitting Sather ofpoststructuralis~n. argued against linear histories that did not analyze the power to n a ~ n e 011 the part of the

Within oral history pas-titularly, where the researcher's role in the production of evide~lce is ~inique to historical analysis, the social location of the researcher i s imperative to the deconstruction of the subjects' nalratives. A s Leslie Bloo111 cu-g~les, the I'eminist researcher provides the most illuminating illustration of meaning making in history. where there exists a genuine respect for a subject's light to define her own history. but with the aclinowledgment of the researcher's explicit role in the history constr~~cted. '~ This is clearly illustrated in the work of Natasha Mauthner and Andrea Doucet. These researchers employ a relational ontology for the a~lalysis of women's interviews. They do not read for a positivist I-ational self, but, rather. for women as they define themselves in I-elationship to the others and contexts. and as they were defined by the researcher's

locatioil within the interview.30 For the feminist poststructuralist working with oral l~isto~jes, therefore. women's aaratives are inescapably embroiled in deep and co~ltroversial issues of power. Diane Wolf addresses a number of these issues in her work. She argues that feminist fieldwork across disciplines have to deal with the inherent power inequalities between the reseacl~er and the researched, including questions of authorship, ownership of data, and use of evidence (sampling methods, relationship with subject, confidentiality, and editing power of the subject)?l Ideally. the oral histoiian hopes for a coi-relation between the participants' and the researchers' i~lfereilce from na-satives. but this does not O C C L I ~

through scientific appeals to ob~ectivity. Instead, i t demands fosteii~lg a trustworthy relationship in the research process based on the researcher's continual r e f l e x i ~ i t y . ~ ~ That being said, narratives are, ultimately, reported discourses created in particular contexts and conditions, which are analyzed wifllin scholars' own discourses or seemingly 'ob~ective' research frameworks. In order to reconstruct the multiple, co~lllicti~lg stories of the past to characterize \vomen's lives. the historian is forced to provide mechanisms that reveal the processes of production that occur during active dialogue with the subject. 3 3

Margxet Nelso~i is one of a number of scholars who does not presuppose to solve iss~les of co-option. but manages to ca])ture glimpses of what might have been by being both listener and elicitor. Nelson's various studies of up to 40 women who taught in Addison County. Vesnlont, provide another Nelson prlt the nairatives of teachers at the centre of a multi-resource study by creating a hee-llowing, open-ended interview. which Sol-waded pxtial conclusions. Altl~ough her personal biography is o~nitted. Nelson does discuss her role in sha13ing the narratives of the female teachers, as she chose women within a single county who taugllt between 1920 and 1950. She also l'ocused on the topic of women's work as it f i t illto laiger social Nelson admits. however. that her role was 1101 and c o ~ l d not be to control the agenda of the research. Initially. the sub-jects of her study were ilnintercsted in her goals and. ~ I I L I S . failed to pursue the li~les of

quesdo~ling she would pose. Instead of examining the structure o f the educational system as it changed from a one-room schoolhouse to a graded school, the wo111ell teachers were Inore interested in infor~nation about how they structured their days during that ~ r a n s i t i o n . ~ ~ As a result of these ~~nexpected types of stories. Nelsoll was able to describe a divergent set of attitudes towards the meaning of work that varied according to the subjects' type o f training, age of occupatiollal entry and age at transition. 3 7

The colllplex issues regarding colltrol over the production of oral histories, by both the subject and the historian, spealc to the need to be wary of imposing grand narratives when explaining women teachers' past experiences. I<atllleen Weiler makes this point poigna~ltly in her study, conducted by multiple interviewers with 25 wornen teachers who lived and worlced in rural Califonlia between 1850 and 1 9 . 5 0 . ~ ~ Weiler critically reads female teachers- nal-satives as discursive texts produced in specific historical contexts. of which the historian can only select and I~igl~light certain themes in accordance with their class. gendel; and racial locations. She notes that the oral history of an African Amel-ican wolnan. obtained in an interview conducted in the 1970s by a blacli scholar. produced a nal~ative centred on the freedom stlvggles o f black people to gain access into educatiollal institutions. This n a ~ a t i v e is set in contrast to one conducted by a white, male scholal- and produced in the conse~vatism of the early 1950s that focused on the conventional characte~istics of teacher sacliiice and c o o ~ m ~ ~ n i t y With respect to her own interviews. Weiler cites incidellces in wliicl~ wonlen, ~ ~ n a w a - e of he]- liberal feminist perspective. intentionally edited their stories to present images of con-ect authority figures and happy endings which [hey believed fit with the expectations of her conservative family background. 40 These examples demonstrate that awareness and discussion of the context of interviews. the goals of the historian. and the interaction between the subjectivities of researcher and researched are mandato1-y to explore the 'historical knowledges' of women teachers' narratives. They illustrate how important i t is for historians to not only be critical of their subjects' rial-I-atives. but the

processes they impose to construct a historical narrative froin the stories.

While the location of the researcher's subjectivities are integral to feminist research, ~naterialist feiniliists argue that the poststl-ucturalist implication that narratives are equally valid Itnowledges could result in the textual dominance of the researcher's experiences, rather than the women helshe is studying. This is particularly evident in I<athleen Casey's work entitled I Aizsuler Wit11 M?i L$e: Life Histories qf'\Vomei~ Teachers Working fijr Social Cl~ailge. Casey undertaltes a study of the life and woi-k of 33 woinen who, obtained through snowball sampling. came from three general subject positions: religious Catholic women, secular Jewish women. and black women teachers.41 Her st~idy of these women's stories is framed by Casey's ow11 awareness that kilowledge is not produced 'out there.' but. rather, in relationship between her subjectivity and their subjectivities. In an effort to integrate this dialogue into the constl~~ction of the historical text, Casey provides a lengthy descriptioil of her family background, political stance. and conten~por:u-y perspectives on e d ~ i c a t i o n . ~ ~ Her naxative thus often clominates the text. This occurs despite her attempts to create an open-ended fonnat for her interviews that. she claims, allow the interests of the rial-rators to be at the forefront of the content and inte~-pretation. This assertion by Casey is at times an exaggeration, as her sampling. questions and categorizations are powerf~il forces in the study. With an awareness of her ~nethodological and textual dominance. Casey is carelill. however. to note that le~ilale teachers' interests can usurp her agenda. Specifically. Casey began her research seeking to interview Communist wo~nen teachers. She often conli-onted secular Jewish women with this title. but was repeatedly told by the women that they were not 'radical' or 'tei-ro~ist' Communists. 43 Casey recogilized that. in the context of the 'Left' in the eighties. when she co~lducted the interviews, her categories did not con-espond with the identities of the subjects. The subjects essentially challenged her to redefine activism within a greatei- scope of activities and experiences, rather than s i in~ly via organizational membership. 111

98 Or-(11 Hi.rtnr? For-rrn~ / For-rrr~i d'l~i.viuir-e ur-rrle

retrospect, Casey realizes and discusses that her own biography of conservative schooling and remoteness from Communist networlcs prevented the illclusioil of sucll evidence.

The works of Casey, Nelson, and Weiler can all be criticized for providing sanitized samples of wo~nen teachers. Theis samples we based 011 women who are highly articulate, more radical than the average teacher, and mirror the charactelistics of their interviewer. As a result, althougl~ allalytically critical, these studies often fail to present, or have not yet uncovered. the giitty, and often negative, realism of teachers' own actions. Marjorie Theobald notes that feminist histo~ians have been ".enchanted by the mallage bars.the politics of exclusion, not pausing to aslc whether the enerality o f women wanted to stay in teaching Sor a lifetime." f4 VWom en. Theobald argues. who are the 'mad lady-teacher in the attic' rue waiting to be i~lcluded in the history of female teachers in the t w e n t i e t h - c e n h ~ r ~ . ~ ~ Such debate, discussion and analysis amongst histolians x e a critical p a t of providing more emiched analyzes o f the experience of women teachers.

Feminist standpoint theorists criticize poststructu~-alist frarnewol-Its on this issue. a~guing that neither the researcher's s~~bjective location nor any other privileged group should talie precedent over the central perspective of women. Nancy Hal-stocli contends that women as an oppressed group. by virtue of their material realities according to the sexual division of labous. have a vision of social relations distinct from men.46 She argues that this vision. stl-uggled for by women over time. must be privileged for its L I I I ~ ~ L I ~ commentary on Dolothy Smith also acknowledges the need Sol- reseaschers to begin from women's distinct standpoint. She. unlilie Harstoclc. does not xgue that women's standpoint I-ei'ers to an autl~entic women's pel-spective. 48 Instead, Smith argues that standpoint is a research method for understanding the ruling apparatuses that wo~nen speak to as s h a p i ~ ~ g their everyday worlds. One could assume that Smith would c~iticize many feminist poststructuralists 101- taking over discursive p~ivilege li-orn their subjects. She algues that researchel-s InLlst co~~cent~- i~te 011 histo~ically placing and embodying female

subjectivity in order to check the general validity of their accounts for the social order.49 Smith and Hastock tu1-11 to a materialist Marxists frainework as a means for 'escaping' seeini~~gly poststr~lcturalist abstract categolies of meaning that ignore the "coordering of actual activities" and change in women's lives.50 It is appasent that these researchers are reacting against worlc, often associated with poststmcturalism, which describes women's lives as floating about their contexts, rather than withi11 them. 5 1

For example, Kathleen Casey's wol-lc centres 011

reproducing dirne~lsions of female teachers' work for social change througl~ the repetitive. yet distinctive concepts and metaphors they co~ls t i~~c t . Casey notes that she needed to identify with the particular, gender-bound, religious languages that were consiste~ltly being used by Catholic wo~nen teachers before she recognized their political t h e o ~ i z i n g . ~ ~ For example, Casey asgoes that many wo~nen would not explicitly ~ n a k e negative co~nme~lts against administrators in their schools. yet they often described ti~nes of school r e f o ~ ~ n and disruption with the metaphor of death and sac~ifice. One woman recalled the death of n fellow teachel- when discussing a change in administrat io~l.~~ The illability of so111e w01ne11 to vocalize their expeliences must be u~lderstood with respect to the constraints they endured as both women ;und nuns in society. Considering the potential for wornen's voices to be 'privatized.' Casey also i~lcludes body language within her discourse analysis. She recalls an interview in which a w01na11 was recounting I~er choice to becoine a nun. and traced a figure eight in the air to represent a sense of unity among her childhood, religious life. and teaching.54 Casey's ability to 1-ead lor C L I I ~ L ~ I - ~ I ~neaning 01- the construction of language enables her to highlight wolnen's expeiiences. Ske Sails. however. to show how women negotiated their relationships with the dominant discourses of institutions that shaped their voice. such as church, state. and school. Unfoi-tunately. as Casey focuses illtiinately on her subjects' discursive structures, she 1-ails to fully explore their mate~ial I-ealities.

A feminist analysis of oral history does not need to set up a dichotomy between discourse and materialism. Michele Ba~rett

notes that poststruct~iralism does discount the supremacy of materialism over signs or discourses. 55 In particular, poststr~ict~iralisrn challenges material feminists' focus on tlie cause of women's oppressio~~ as being rooted in econo~nic relations. 56 One sliould riot intel-pret such a challenge. howevel; to mean that discourse is not intirnately related to niate~ial life. Signs should not simply replace production as a root cause of women's oppression. An analysis of discourse with respect to wornen's narratives ~niist seek to examine the system of ".controlling metaphors, notions, categolies and llonns which develop and delimit the sub~ects' conceptions and expressio~ls of personal, work and social

Discourse is thus a way of perceiving women-s experiences through multiple. competing and char~gi~ig voices within society.58 As theo~ist Mikhail Balchtin algoes, voices create striictures through which the reality of a multitude of concr-ete worlds lliight be perceived or discussed.59 In addition to perceiving how wome~l construct themsel\les, such discussion enables the historian to better understand the ways that dominant discourses. as they relate to stl-uctural institutions. also construct women's naratives. The oral historian must not identify language as life. Women teachers' lives and language are active cites of negotiation for the histolian to explore between their subjectivities and tlie lnaterial constraints that gsouncl theis language choices according to factors such as gender. class. race, region, and workplace. While the relationship between discourse and the ~naterial world is unavoidable in women's nan-atives. i t is up to the I~istorian to provide a11 effective reading of both parts in tlie texts. The Popillar Memory Group argues that histol-ia11s II ILIS~ approach oral na11-atives with dual. sirnulta~leoiis inte~pretations. namely. a reading for structure, or the experiences of the matel-ial world and the wo~-I<i~~gs of it. and a reading for culture. or tlle ways memolies of events and experiences x e organized through language. 60

The worlc of Ricllard Quantz and Ma]-gwet Nelson is particularly attuned to how these discourse and material realities shape their sub~ects' histories. Tbey each focus on teachers' negotiations of matel-ial factors as they are expressed through

discursive strategies. Quantz algues that woinen teachers duiing the Depressioil era in Ohio dealt with careers that were characteiized by the duality of elnpowerrnellt and confinement. He describes through the shased language and subjectivities produced in the women's nmatives. that wornen used metapl~ors for teaching that publicly accoininodated and persollally resisted their situation. These metaphors include, the subordillate-autholity figure (teacher as both respected/feared by students and respectf~~l/fea~ful of inale administsators) and the school as fa~nily (mo~hedchild relationship with students and a sister-like relationship with co-worliers. but expected to be single with the father-lilse figure of an adrnini~tra tor) .~~ Quaiitz notes that the complete pictore 01 these women's experiences is not to be found in these abstractions, as women teachers did not approach life metaphorically, but concretely. He argues. however. that teachers' subjective redefinitions under the structural conditions of that period inade it possible for teachers to think of themselves in oppositional ways rather than dominant discourses. This study provides interesting examplesoof how teachers' worlc expel-iences do not always c o n l ' o r ~ ~ ~ to hegenlol~ic discourses of ~naterial conditions. For example. the n~other metaphor that was strongly identified with teachers d~lring the pel-iod aHorded them a great amount of autlio~ily within the community. \vhile Iceeping them subordinate within the educational system.62 Despite soch interesting dynamics, Quantz's concluding remwlis allude to the idea that these women attributed to their own powerlessness as teachers because they did not cliangc their material realities. merely their subjective worlds.

Nelson. whose wol-lc deals with similar themes. reconfigures Quantz's conclusions regarding the relative impact of discourse and s t r i ~ c t ~ i r e . ~ ~ Specif cally. Nelson's study of women teachers' relationships to their working conditions in Ve~mont notes that the meaning or satisfaction derived ii-0111 teaching cannot be based solely on matel-ialist terms. Rather. she argues that women in her study expressed both positive and negative feelings towards their positions in radic:llly difisent wolh e ~ i v i r o ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ e n t s . ~ ~ Unlike

Quantz, she concludes that women teachers' discursive expl-essions of e~npowe~nle~ l t were as 'real' as their structural context when dete~lni~li~ig their experiences of work. 65

The importance of this demarcation is clear in the wos-l< oi- Sue Middleton and Helen May, which explores the strategies that over 150 teachers used to understand the do~nina~i t discourses and social movements tliat swept through New Zealand schools between 1915 and 1 9 9 5 . ~ ~ Unfortunately, their study does not fulfil this goal as they confiise descriptio~ls of slructural co~iditio~is wit11 discourse analysis. Using mateiials from administrators, philosophers, and a cross-section of teachers. Middleto11 and May assert that they want to recapture how teacl~i~lg affected and was affected by a diverse range of issues (the pu:yose of schooling, the streaming of Maori children, and 'progl-essive' child-centered edi~cation).~' What they construct is a descriptive historical account that focuses on the political irrespective of tlie personal. with little analysis of subjects' memories or languages. Although Middleton and May powes-fully state ".now. let 11s listen as teachers talk teaching." they actually edit women's stories in compljance with competing dolni~imt disco~irses 01 education tliat existed during the period in qilestion.68 Tliis is pal-ticulaly evident as the authors admit to cleaning up the raw data. removing subjects' . ' . 'urns. ers. slang words and digressions. as well as indiscriminately inco~porating their own na~a t ives with their subjects' stories.69 As a result. Middleton and May. at times. treat oral histories as anecdotal evidence to documents. With the re~noval of the silences. and the inattentiveness to literary devices tliat structure speech. the reader can miss how women teachers organized or deter~nined their subjectivities located \vitliin rapidly changing public institutions. Middleton and May do not examine sollie of the most fascinating questions: HOW did the mothers whom they describe as reserve labour in the 1950s rationalize their careers? How did teachers feel about students who espoused racism du~ing the tension filled decade of the 1960s? As a whole. these works demonstrate that studies of \vomen teachers' mu-ratives cannot be founded on an analysis of discourse or materialism. as

the meaning of these concepts are defined in relation to one another.

Poststriicturalist feminists express concerns that a reading for the material effects of a seemingly unified 'Woman's discoul-se, as with the case of Middleton and May, results in ge~leralizable theories of oppressio~l and si~lgular definitions of 'Woma11.l.' Poststr~icturalists challenge felniilist standpoint theorists, arguing that thejx desire to locate the 'Woman's' perspective implies that they call locate the 'authentic centre' of the female identity through an examination of the personal. inner life.70 Defined as such, the oppressed individual, or in this case a woman. can be politically liberated by articulating their fixed identity. Postcolonial feminists strongly ague that such inferences are inaccurate and continue to colonize the 'Third World Woman' or the 'Black Woman' according to westein i~nages of their lacl; of power.71 Chaidra Mohanty argues that many feminist researchers' discursive practices reproduce hegemonic public discour-ses of non-Western women's identities and ciiltiires as statically ' ~ the i - . ' ~ ' Material feminists argue. however; that the same static 'Other' can be 11roduced when poststructuralists define the subject ahistolically. It is necessary to adopt, therelore. a materialist oi- contextual ailalysis of oral history, informed by the feminist poststructuralist negation of the search lor unity. This synthesized analysis thereby acknowledges that women do not have a coherent self moving tl~roiigl~ history with a single identity. Instead, the self is a social. ~~ilstable identity constantly created and negotiated through both dominant, contradictory discourses and resistance to those conceptio~~s. All female sub-jects, therefore. have agency or power 1.01- resistance. The notions o l separated piivate, powerli~l selves from social selves. as Milillail Bakhtin notes. are myths. The self is defined in its encounter with the 'other,' ~ I I L I S the self-identity is a pi-oduct and provides passwords of social l b ~ - c e s . ~ ~ Passwords include issues of gender ancl power, oi- more generally, the processes and practices that create and recreate oppressive social relations and structures. 74

The self as defined by the other should not mean. as some materialist c~itiques of poststructii~-alisin argue, that women can

only control, know and define a fragment of themselves. Women call articulate a coherent identity but it is for the historian to explain the fo~~nat ion of that identity as a11 ideological struggle for agency within patriarchal and oppressive institutions and discourses. Michel Foucault articulates, ".in thinking of the mechanisms of power [researchers should] think of its capillaly f o m ~ of existence, the point where power reaches into the veiy grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions, attitudes, their discourses. and everyday lives."75 Identity formation thus needs to be decollstructed to understand the frameworl;~ of women's differentiated expeliences. What it means to be a woman, how that is defined according to the subjects' material needs and available languages for articulating them, are the main points of exploration for the historian.

Kathleen Weiler's study of rural teachers illustrates that identity formation, as revealed through women teachers' na~at ives . is free and structured, personal and public. as well as inten~ally and extenlally shaped. These contradictions rue pxticulxly clear a s Weiler exploi-es why women chose to teach. Most respondents could not provide an answel; and only a few acknowledged theb limited options or the few jobs that were considered '\vomen's work.'76 Despite the awareness of str~~ctui-a1 constraints, almost all of the women interviewed presented themselves as autonomous individuals, mal<ing personal choices. Weiler notes that women's identities as teachel-s were constructed around American nationalist discourses based on the li-eedom of individuals to make their own -futures regardless of limi t a t i o ~ ~ s . ~ ~ Contradictoiily. therefore. the subjects did not challenge the idea that teaching was women's work. and they did not describe themselves in terns of 'natural' avocation, such as sacrifice. and nurturing. These women collstr~~cted themselves in opposition to stereotypical chcu-actelistics of femininity. while 11lso presenting narratives that reveal taken-for-gl-anted assumptions about the restrictions woinen faced. Such contradictions. or what feminist historians temm 'bad fits.' highlight the very point at which the subject actively negotiates her concept 01. sell:78 As previously mentioned.

however, the language used to conceptualize the 'self' is not unitary. Instead, coherence obscures meanings of race. class, and gender that define female teachers' identities. This is evident in the na-rative of a white Protestait teacher who framed her identity as a teacher in traditional tenns, asserting her respectability within the c o m r n ~ i o i t ~ . ~ ~ Weiler notes how the intersections of class and gender work subversively within this narrative. The subject represents her 'self' as a powerful, Chlistian, pure woman, without co~n~ilent to her financial struggles and lack of upper class associates. This woman's choice of representation is very significant for understanding her perceptions of her status and roles in society.

Kate Rousmaniere. like Weiler, reads female teachers' narratives for sell-representation, rather than literal content. in her effort to examine what i t meant for her subjects to be teachers in 1920s' New Yorl~. Focusing on the collectivity of her subjects' nmatives. Rous~naniere seeks to u~iderstand female teachers' occupational identities. She begins this study by explaining the ~ ~ o b l e m s associated with categorizing teachers' identities. She argues that women teachers exist within a paradoxical position. Teaching is characterized as a profession. but exits under close supervision; i t is a midclle class career but has a high proportion of minority groups.S0 An analysis of such incongrueocies reveals the t h i ~ line Iiistolians tread between exploring common themes among narratives and over-generalizing, thus imposing an essentialist identity on the woman teacher. Foremost. l~owever. i t is evident to the reader that locating the identity of women teacher-s as a group means that the historian and the subject must negotiate the context of \vomen's work in relation to intersections o l class. gender. 'race.' scxunlily. region. age and so on. For Rousmaniel-e. that means explo~ing the rccurring thenles of n:usatives in order to provide he]-self \vith a tenlati~le roadmal:, to the inte~nal and extenla1 order i~~g of teachers' subjeclivities. She concludes from this map that women teachers created an identity for themselves as semi- independent ~ o r h e i - s . ~ ~ As 21 result. teachers maintained some individual control and personal integrity for their job. but worked in collecti\le isolation tli;lL discouraged eflective change through

unionization. Rousmaniere argues that this collective identit shaped both city teachers' work and their responses to that work. 8 3

While Weiler and Rousmaniere argue that the fo~~nation of identities for felnale teachers was defined primarily by accornrnodation, I<athleen Casey provides oppositio~lal readings. Casey argues that the 'progressive' felnale sub-jects she interviewed consiste~ltly resisted or reinterpreted do~~linant and co~~servative constructions of their identities as teachers. The subversion of donlinant meanings to represent the identities of Semale teachers is pa-titularly explicit in the narratives of blaclc women teachers. With an all too clear understanding of the systematic subjugations of black constsuctions of self within the United States. these black \\tornen teachers use their naratives to disclose, disguise and reverse their identities. In doing so they are exposing white produced stereotypes, unde~mining the construction of race as biological cateuory. and asserting their power to articulate their own identities.@' For example. within blacli women's nar-atives. whites often appear as ca~icatiil-es. the timeless slave narative provides a framewoi-li. and the meaning of derogatory words. such as mammy, are transfoli1med.84 While less likely to directly state the constraints of school life. these na~-~-ilti\les represent the diversity. agency. limitations, personal and public hameworks that shape female teachers' identities.

These texts, as a field, reveal the productive tensions of'l'ered by a feminist poststri~ctu~-alist and materialist reading for women teachers' oral histories. An integrated seading reveals how school struct~~res shaped women teachers' identities. while also delnonstrating the ways women invoked cultul-a1 concepts. such as the school as family. to assert their authority. Similarly. when openly acl<nowledging the complex production of osal history. histolians can ilnderstand that their research PI-iosities. such as the striicti~re of the one-room schoolhouse. co-exists with women teachers' priol-ities, such as the daily ~ ~ r l i l o a d . An integrated analysis also highlights that the divel-se definitions of work are dependent on the discourses available for womcn's social status. The histo~ian can understand how white women teachers' focus 011

education as cornlnullity building. while black women teachers' focus on education as a freedom struggle. An integrated allalysis further reveals how an individual woman teacher's lack of 'official' autonomy can be inter-reliant 011 her perceptions of collective power for wolne11 teachers. As Joan Sangster has noted in her work on wolnen's oral histories, poststruct~iral analysis is beneficial to deconstruct the ~lasrative form of scripts for lnea~lillgs in wornen's oral histories and to acknowledge the construction of the ~~asrative as text by both reseascher and r e s e ~ c h e d . ~ ~ She S~irther comments. felni~list materialist i11sig11ts are needed to focus historians to examine the ways relations of power shape women's choices within social. cult~iral, political and e c o ~ l o ~ n i c boundaries.S6 The knowledge base of women teache~-s' oral histories is information that comes co~llplele with conflicting interpretations. evaluations. and explanations that are illtrillsic to the representation of any historical The deconsts~iction of women's nassatives, as an unstable basis for 'true' knowledge, potelltially reveals the structuring pxadigms and processes that shape women's individual and collective material realities in the pasts. Although often contested within feminist theory, i t is the te~lsiolis that a i s e from an integrated feminist poststmcturalist and ~natel-ialist a~lalysis for women teachers' oral history that provide a liame~vork: lor 'good' feminist research.

Endnotes

I Sx~idra Ht~rdilig. " I ~ i t r o d ~ ~ t i o ~ i . " ill Feminism ;und Methodology. edited by S. 1-lal-ding. (Bloomingto~i: l~idiana Uni\.ersity Press. 1987). 8-9.

7 Sli~~la~niit Reinliarz. "Neglectetl Voices ;111d Escessi\'e Demands in Feminisl Research." Qunlit~~tive Sociology 16 ( I 1)L)3): 7 1-72.

3 Barburn Johnson. A World ol' Difkrel~ce. (Uoltimore: Johns Hopkins U~iiversity Press. 1987). 37.

-1 Jennilkr Wicke. "Celebrely Material: M31eri;llist Ferninis111 311~1 [lie Culture of Celebrety." The South Atltintic QLI~I-tel-ly. Fall I994 ( 7 5 1-78). 7-11.

5 .ludilh Butler. "For a Careful Reading." in Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Esclinnge. edited S. Benh;ibih. J . Butle~-. D. Coriiell. ;mil N. Frnser. (New York: Iti>ulledge. 1995 ). 127- 128.

(1 Jo;ui Snligster. "Telling Our Stories: I~emi~iis t D e b ~ ~ l e s and Ihe Use of Om1 I-fist or!^." in Rethi~iking Canada: Tlie Promise o f Wome~i's History. Third Edirio~l.

edited V. Strong-Bong and A. Fellman. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997). 3 17.

Feminist researchers have bepun to clnallenge the monolitlnic characterization o f these two 'camps' of tlnouglit. Tlie diversity of analysis within poststructurnlism and rnnterialis~n is not central to this study. hut. rather. the permeable boundaries between tliern are explored. Furthennore. this study does not attribute the identity of any theoretical tradition to the Iiistosians of the women te;lcliers' oral histories under ex~miination. Rather. the focus is o n using fetninist poststructurnlist and materialist theorists for readings of the written oral histories of women teachers.

hkljorie Theobnld. "Te:lcliers. mernor!~ and oral history." in Tellinz Women's Livcs: Narrative Inquiries in the I-listoly of Women's Education. edited by Kathleen Weiler and Sue Middleton. (Philadelphia: Open University PI-ess. 1999). 2 1 .

See. for exumple. Kathleen Cnsey. "Why do Pro~ressive Women Activists Leave Teachins?: Tlieory. methodolop. and politics in life-history research." in Stutlying Tcaclicrs' Lives. editetl I. Goodson. (London: lioutledpe. 1992): L ~ i i s ; ~ 13 nsserini. . . "Women's Personal Narratives: Myths. Experiences. and Emotions." in Inlerpretinp Women's Lives: Ferninist Theory and Personal Narratives. edited by Personal Narratives Group. iBloomington: 1ndi;ln:l University Press. 1989).

Jncclues Derridu. Of GI-ammatolog! B:lltirnore. h4;1ryInntl: John I-lopkins University Press. 1976.

.lo:nn Scott. "Espei-ie~nce." ill Izeminists Theorize the Political. ecls. Judith Bullel- ;lnd Joan W. Scott (Ne\jr l'orl;: Routletlge. 1992).

Richard A. Qu;untz. "Tlie Coml~les Vision 01' Female Te:rchers and the Failui-e oF Unionization in the 1930s: All 01.31 his tor!^." in The Te;~cher's Voice: A Social I-listory of Te:~cIiilig ill T\ventielh Cerntury America. etl. Richard J. Altenb;~uph (London: Fallner Press. IL)Cj2). 1.39- 140.

Ibid.. 153- 155

l io~~smaniere. City Te;icherb: Teaching ;rind School lieform in I-listorical I'er~pecli\~e. (New York: Te;ichers College Press. 1997). 1-2.

Ibitl.. 3-8.

lL7itl.. 9

Snntlln I-larclinf. "Conclusion." in Ize~nillism aricl Metliotlolo~!~. eclired by S. liarcli~ig. iBloomingtc>ii: 11idia1i;l Vni\~ersit!l Press. 1987). 182-1 84: Spnlter-liotli. liobertn and I-leidi I-lartm~lnn. "Small tlappiness: The Ferninist S t r ~ ~ p g l e to Integrate Soci;il 1iese~rrch \\.it11 Soci~rl Activism." in Felninist Appl-o;lches to Theory ;lntl Methoclolo~y. etlitetl by S. I-lesse-Biber. C. Gilmnrtin and R. Lytlenberg. iNe\v l'ork: Oxford. 1999). 334-336.

I-larding. "Conclusion." 184. See. I'or es;lmple. Spalter-lioth. liobertn and I-leicli I-l;lrtm;unn. "Small Happiness: The Feminist Slrusgle to 11ntegr;rte Social liesearch \vith Socinl Acti\8isrn." in IZeminist Appronches to Tlieoi-!I :und h~letlioclology. eilited by S. I-lesse-Biber. C. Gillnartin nnrl 11. Lydenbelp. (New York: Oxford. I999 1.

Spalter-Roth and Heidi Hartmann. 340-341.

Donna Haraway. "Situated Knowledges: Tlie Science Question in Ferninism and the Privilege of Partial Perspecti~~es." in Sirniruns. Cyborgs, and Women: the reinvention of nature. (New York: Routledge, 1991). 19 1 .

Ibid.. 188.

Ibid.. 187

.Joy Pam. "Gender History a i d Historicr~l Practice," in Gender and History in Canada, eds. Joy Pars and Mark Rosenfeld (Toronto: Copp Clark Ltd.. 1996).

Paul Thompson. Voice of tlie Past: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1978). 90.

Alice Dufb Rineliart. Mortal in tlie Immortal Profession: an oral history of teaching. (New York: Irvington Publishers. 1983), v.

Ibid. Review by Ric1i;rrd Altenbaugh. "Introduction." in Tlie Teacher's Voice: A Social tlistor)) of Teaching in Twentieth Century America. ed. Ricliarcl J. i\ltenbaugh (London: Fnlmer Press. I992 ). 3.

Klrtlileen Weiler. "Remembering ant1 representing l i l i choices: a critical perspective on teachers' oral history narratives." Qu;rlit~rtive Studies in Education 5: I ( 1992'). 40.

Fo~~cnul t as cited by Michele Burrett. "Words and Things: Muterialis~n ;und R4etliod in Contempornry Ferninis1 Analysis." in Desti~bilizirig Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates. edited by M . Barrett and A. Phillips. (Cambridge. UK: Polity Press. 1992). 71 1.

L r l i e lieheccn Bloom. "Stories of One's O\vn: Non~lnitary Sul?jectivity in N:~rrative Representation." Qualitative Inquiry 2:2 (1996).

Nntnsliu Rllnuth~ier nntl Anclre~r Doucet. "liellections on n Voice-centrecl Kel;llion;~l Method." in 1-emi~iist D i l e ~ i i r n ; ~ ~ in Qunlitnti\~e Rese~rrch: Public I<no\vledge nncl 1'1-ivnte Lives. edited by J. Ribbells alicl R. Ed\vnrds. 119-146. (Lontlon: Sage. 1908). 175-1 33.

Wolf. Diane. "Situating Feminist Dilernrii;~~ in Fieldwork." in 12eminist Dilemmas in Fiel~l\\~orl<. eclited by D. Wolf. (Boulder. Colorado: West\~iew Press. 1996). 7- 3. h1letIioclologic:~l issues s~lch as these are exploretl at length in tlie following resources: Lyncln Mensor and Patricia Sikes. "Visiting Lives: Ethics iund hletlioclology in Life I-listoly." in Studying Teachers' Lives. ed. 1. Gooclson (Lonclon: lioutleclge. 1992): Slierna-Berger Gluch nncl Dapline P~rtni (ecls.) Women's M'ortls: the feminist 111-actice of oral history (New York: lioutleclge. 1991 ): .loyce PlcCarl Nielsen (ed.) Feminist liesenrch Methods: Exemplary lienclings in the Socinl Sciences (Boulcler: Westvie\\) Press. 1990).

Woll'. 34-36

.loan Snngsler mnhes a sirnilar point in hel- book Erlrnirig Respecl: The Lives of Working Women in Small-To\\,n Ontario. 1910-1960 (Toronto: Llniver-sity of Toronto Press. 1995). 12. S;llngster ;~chno\\lledges in her st~rdy of female Ihctory \\,orliers ill P e t e r h ~ r ~ ~ ~ g l n tIii1t: "While I have tried to use the intervie\\ method to

conimunicate women's own perceptions and I ~ L I I I ~ S . nly inlerpretalion of tllose truths is inevitably given some precedence in this book."

Margaret K. Nelson. "From One-Room Schoolhouse to the Graded School: Teaching in Vennont. 1910-1 950." Frontiers 7: 1 (1983): Margaret I<. Nelson. "The Intersection of tlome and Work: Ruml Vermont Schoolteachers. 19 15- 1950." and "Female Schoolteachers as Community Builders.'' in The Teachers' Voice: A Social I-listory of Teaching in Twentieth Century America ed. Richard J . Altenbaugli (London: Fnlmer Press. 1997): Margaret K. Nelson. "Using Oral Case I-listories to Reconstruct the Experiences of Women Teachers in Vernionl. 1900-1950.'' in Studyin: Teacher's Lives. etl. I. Goodsc~n (London: Routledge. 1992). All of her stuclies \\fork ti-om the same sample of sul?jeccl Nelson interviewed LIP to 40 wonien in the totality of her vvork. but each article uses a dill'erent group l i a n this sampling.

Nelson. "From One-Room Schoolhouse to tlie Graded School." 15-1 6.

Ibitl.

Ibid.. 18-1 9.

I<:ltlileen Weiler. Country Schoolivornen: Teaching in Ruml Calili~rni;~. 1850- 1950 (Stanford: St~lnfol-d University Press. 1998). 1-7: Kathleen Weilel-. "liellections on writin: u histor!. of \vomen te;lchers." in Telling Women's Lives: Narrative Inquiries in tlie Iiis[o~-y of W0rnen.s Edt~cation. eclited by I<;~thleerl Weiler and Sue i\llidtlleton. Phil;~delphia: Open University Pless. 1099. S h e disct~sses \J ;~I -~OLIS uses of tlic si11ne s;111111Ie of S L I ~ ~ ~ ~ C I S .

Weiler. "Rellections on \\,riling a history of \\,omen teachers." 45-55

Ibid.. 55-56

I<;lthleen Case!!. I Ans\ve~- \vitli M j , LiKe: Life Iiistories of Women Teachers WOI-king Ibr Social Change (Ne\\. Yorli: Routledge. Inc. 1993). 13-1 7: I<;~tlileen Casey. "Why do Pro:ressi\,e \Vomen Activists Lealr? Teaching? ...." In this ;lrticlr she uses tlie same sul?jrcts' rlnrmtives as in her hook. 1 Ans\tJer With M y Life.

Casey. I Ans\trer With My Lili.. 8-9

Ibitl.. 69-71. A similar point is rnnde clear in the nur-I-atives of religious Catholic \ + a ~ ~ ~ i l e ~ i teachers.

hillljorie Theobnlcl. "Te:rcIiers. memory nlicl or;~l liistor!~." 7 1. She also notes that lnost histori:111s 01' Ikmale te:lchers' o~.;~l histo~.ies Ii~lve been teachers theniselves. and. 111~1s. provide less of the poterltiul neg;ltivity ol'tenchers' onJri ;~ctions.

Ibitl.. 7 I.

N~lncy I-Insstock. "The Izerninist St;~ntlpoint." in Feminism ;~nd Methoclology. edited by S. I-lnrtlinp. Bloo~nington: I11tli;lna Uni\,er-sity Press. 1987). 159- 160. See ;llso Patl-icio I- l i l l Collins. "Len~-nirig horn O~ttsitle~. Within: The Sociological Signilicnnce 01' Black Feminist Thot~glit." in IZeminist Appronches to Theory and Methodology: ;1r1 intenlisciplin;~ry re;~der. eclited by S. Hesse-Bibel-. C. Gilmurtin and R. Lydenherg. tNe\\ York: Oxford LIni\'ersity Press. 1099). Collins discusses the distincl standpoint of Ulnck \\,omen ~~cnclernics (us Outsiders Within) to inlluence the kno~vleclge interrog;~tion ol'concepts such :IS flmil!) and c u l t ~ ~ r e . She

argues that her outsider within status enables an analysis of women's experiences based on tlie si~nultaneity of oppressions (class. race, gender).

Ibid.

Dorothy Smith, "Tlie Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Methodology." ir ] The Everyday World as Problematic. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1987). 111.

Ihid.. 108 and 177.

Ibid.. 141.

See lor ex~unple critiques of Judith Butler's. Gender Troubles: Feminism wid the Subversion of Identity. (New York: Routledge. Chapman ;und H:ill incorporated. 1990).

Casey. I Answer With My Life. 3 1.

Ibid.. 47-43.

Ibid.. 48.

Barlett. 202-203.

Ibid. Bnrrett discusses feminist poststr~~ctur:~list critiques o f a single ca~~sali ty ol' women's oppression.

Ctlsey. 1 Ans\\,er With My Life. 3 1.

I'al-I-. 15. Par-r states: "Experience. this is to say. is Ibrrned through discourses. Experiences are not m:~tle by discourses. but discourses are tlie ~netliurii through \\,liicli experiences are comprehrnsible..Tl~~~s tlie study of the elements li-om \\*liicli expel.ience is constitntetl is not u tli\aersion from the ;uinlysis of powel: but u \\a3y to ul~tlerstund how po\\,el- \\~orks."

h4. Bt~khtin. Tlie Dialogic I~naginatio~i (Austin: Univel-sity ofTexas Press, 1981 ). as quoted by Cosey. I Ans\\fe~- With M y Lili.. 70-71.

l'op~ll;~r Memory G~OLII) . " P O ~ L I I ; ~ ~ 11ie11iory: Theory. politics. ~netliod." in Making Histories. eds. I?. Johnson. G. McLennnn. B. ScI~\\~nrtz. D. Suit011 (London: tlutcliiriso~~. I9S2). 228-734.

Q~lantz. "Tlie Colnples Vision of Female Tenclier.." 147-146.

Ibicl.. 145-145.

Ihitl.. 1.56.

Nelsor~. "lZroni tlie One-Room Schoolhouse to the Gradecl School.." 14-15 and 19.

Ibi~l.. 15- I0 : i ~ i ~ l I9

The description of tlie nlethod of ir~tervie\\,ing 2nd sumpling is providetl in both of the Ibllo\\.inf resources: Sue hliddleton and I-lelen M:ly. "Disciplining the teachin: body 196s-78: profressi\je education aid ferninis111 in Ne\\j Ze~~lnnd." in Telling Womrn's Lives: Narrative Inc]~~iries i n tlie I-listc>ry of Women's Education. eds. I<alllleen Weiler. ant1 Sue Mitlclleton (Philndelphitt: Open University Press. 1999). 76: Sue Middleton and I-lelen May. Teuchers Talk Teachin:. 19 IS-1095: E;~rly Chilclhoo~l Schooll; kind Te3cIiess' Colleges. (Ne\v Zealand: Du~iniore PI-ess.

1997). 9- 17.

Middleton and May. Teachers Talk Teaching. This work is reviewed by Lourn Docter Thornburg. "Review of Teachers Talk about Teaching. 19 15-1 995: Early Childhood Schools and Tencliers' Colleges." History of Education Quarterly 35 (1998).

Middleton and May. Teachers Talk Teaching. 17.

Ihid.. 9-1 7.

B;u.rett. 2 10.

Chandru Tulpnde Mohtuily. "Under WesLem Eyes: Feminist Scliolarsliip and Colonial Discourses." in Third World Women 2nd tlie Politics of Feminism. edited by C.Mohanty. A. Russo. and L. Tori-es. (Bloo~nington: Indiana University Press. 199 1 ). 54.

h i d .

Baklitin as pnrnplirasecl hy Casey. 1 Answer With M y Life. 26.

See. for example. C. Gilligan. In n Different Voice (Cnrnbridse: tIa~-varcl Univel-sit? Press. 1982).

Micliel Fo~rcnult. Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison (New Yolk: Vinlage. 1979).

Weiler. "Remember-ing and representing life histories.." 44-46,

Ibid.. 46.

Ibicl.. 43.

Weiler. "llelleclio~is on ivri~ing a history of \\omen te;~cliers.." 52-54: See. fol- esample. Weiler. Countr!' School\~omen.

Ilousmwiiere. City Teachers. 5-7: Kate R~~rs~ii ; lniere. "51'1ir1-e I-laley Stoocl: h4alpuret tlaley. Lencliers' \\)ark. and the problem o f teucher iclentity." in T e l l i ~ i ~ Women's Lives: Narrati\~e Inquiries in tlie I-lisLory of Women'h Etlucntion ecls. I<athlesn Weiler uncl Sue Middleto11 (Philndelpliin: Open Uni\'ersity Press. 1999). Slie pro\iclrs siliiilar rlihcussions of the caLegoriz;~tion of km;~le ~eacliers' \\'ark.

Ibicl. Slie cliscusses this theme in most c l l ~ ~ p t e r ~ .

Ihid.. 135.

Ibicl.. clinpter enliLled "A Sipnibin? Discourse 01. Ul;~ck Women Tencliers Working Sol- Soci:~l C1i:ln:e."

Ibid.

Joan St~nsster. "Telling Our Stories.." 3 17.

Ibicl.

Casey. I t\lls\\,er- With kly Lilt. 13: Populnr hlemory Group. "Po11~11ar ~ i i e ~ i l ~ r y . "