Teachers Without Borders: Exploring Experiences, Transitions, and Identities of Refugee Women Teachers from Yugoslavia

Prior to September 11 2011, Canada was recognized as a leading advocate of international refugee protection and the third largest settlement country in the world. University educated refugees were admitted to the country in part on the basis of their education, but once in Canada their credentials were often ignored. The purpose of this study was to explore, through a transnational feminist lens, immigrant and settlement experiences of refugee female teachers from Yugoslavia who immigrated to Canada during and after the Yugoslav wars; to document the ways in which socially constructed categories such as gender, race, and refugee status have influenced their post-exile experiences and identities; and to identify the government's role in creating conditions where the women were either able or unable to continue in their profession. In this study, I employed both a transnational feminist methodology and narrative inquiry. The analysis process included an emphasis on the storying stories model, poetic transcription, and concentric storying. The women’s voices are represented in various forms throughout the document including individual and collective narratives. Each narrative contributed to a detailed picture of immigration and settlement processes as women spoke of continuing their education, knowing or learning the official language, and contributing to Canadian society and the economy. The findings challenge the image of a victimized and submissive refugee woman, and bring to the centre of discourse the image of the refugee woman as a skilled professional who often remains un- or underemployed in her new country. The dissertation makes an important contribution to an underdeveloped area in the research literature, and has the potential to inform immigration, settlement, and teacher education policies and practices in Canada and elsewhere.

Retired Women Teachers of Ontario—St. Catharines branch fonds, 1970-2013.

The Retired Women Teachers of Ontario (RWTO) was founded in Toronto by a small group of retired women teachers known as the Rendezvous Club. This group brought together several branches in 1956 to form the Ontario Association of Superannuated Teachers (OAWST), which was changed to the RWTO in 1999. The group was initially formed in order to provide retired women teachers with the same pension that was received by their male colleagues. The group came to the realization that they would have a better chance of success if they had a larger group of supporters. As a result, new branches were formed throughout Ontario. In 1967, the government concurred that the pension should be raised, and the minimum pension level was increased to $1200 a year. The following year the Retired Teachers of Ontario was formed, representing both male and female retired teachers. This new group was now responsible for communicating and negotiating with the government concerning pension matters. However, the RWTO continued to exist with a focus on the special interests and well-being of retired women teachers. There are currently 53 branches throughout Ontario.

Childlessness in a child-centered environment : the experiences of voluntarily childless female teachers /

In the literature on voluntary childlessness there is a lack of research on the types of occupations held by women who choose not to mother and how their fertility choice influences their occupational experiences. At the same time, the experience ofwomen with regard to the childfree choice has not been adequately addressed in contemporary feminist literature. In the field of education, much has been written about the association between mothering and teaching. Thus, childfree teachers become particularly interesting since they made seemingly paradoxical choices in that they chose not to bear and rear children yet they chose an occupation in which they are surrounded by and responsible for the daily care of many children. To gain an understanding of the work-related experiences of childfree women, in-depth interviews were conducted with 7 voluntarily childless female elementary school teachers from Southern Ontario. In addition, a focus group interview in which 3 of the 7 childfree teachers participated was conducted. Findings revealed that these women's "choice" to be childless was the result of complex circumstances and multiple motivations. Also, despite their decision to forgo the traditional female role of mother, these women held surprisingly conventional beliefs with regard to family and gender roles. In addition, these childfree women at times identified themselves as mother-like when teaching, yet at other times distanced themselves as teachers from mothers. Finally, results showed that these women experienced both direct and indirect pronatalist pressures outside as well as inside the workplace as a result of their childfree status.

Primeiros anos da carreira docente : diálogos com professoras iniciantes na educação infantil

Esta pesquisa focaliza o início da carreira docente na Educação Infantil. No reconhecimento da especificidade da primeira etapa da Educação Básica e na compreensão de que o início da carreira é fundamental para a trajetória profissional dos professores, tem o objetivo de compreender a constituição do início da carreira docente de professoras que têm na Educação Infantil suas primeiras vivências profissionais. O trabalho se estrutura por princípios teórico-metodológicos bakhtinianos (BAKHTIN, 2003), contextualiza o desenvolvimento da docência na Educação Infantil no Brasil e a complexidade no início da carreira, dialogando, deste modo, com os conceitos de saberes docentes (TARDIF, 2002) e desenvolvimento profissional (MARCELO GARCÍA, 1999). A abordagem é qualitativa do tipo exploratória e se apoia no princípio de interação dialógica (BAKHTIN, 2003). Dispõe como fonte de produção de dados entrevistas individuais e coletivas com um grupo de professoras no segundo ano de atuação profissional na Educação Infantil. Nesse movimento, a dialogia orienta a análise das enunciações das professoras sobre início de carreira, no intuito de conhecer as vivências dos novos processos formativos. A análise dos dados produzidos indica que o início da carreira docente na Educação Infantil se constitui em complexas condições e transições de emprego, nas quais residem as principais dificuldades de desenvolvimento profissional. Paralelo às dificuldades encontradas, o aprendizado da docência na Educação Infantil ocorre por meio do desenvolvimento de parcerias com professoras mais experientes e também por meio do reconhecimento das necessidades de cuidado e educação de cada criança. Logo, é evidenciado que as professoras iniciantes reformulam suas perspectivas didáticas e modos de saber fazer em função das especificidades que envolve cada contexto no qual estão inseridas.

Dones a la ciència i a la universitat: la construcció de la identitat docent i investigadora en contextos de desigualtat

[cat] Aquest treball recull el procés i els resultats de la recerca "Dones a la Ciència i a la Universitat: la contribució de la identitat docent i investigadora en contextos de desigualtat" (2007 RDG 00001)finançada per l'Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) en la convocatòria d'ajuts per a l'estudi de desigualtats originades per motius de gènere en l'àmbit científic i universitari (RDG) per l'any 2007. La finalitat d'aquest projecte ha estat explorar i reconstruirl'experiència personal i professional de tres generacions de dones en el procés de construcció de la seva identitat com a docents, investigadores i gestores. La forma d'assolir aquesta finalitat ha estatl'elaboració de 8 històries de vida professional per tal de comprendre la relació entre les seves trajectòries i les condicions de la seva feina i esbrinar com es van convertir en la mena de donesprofessores, investigadores o gestores que ara són; així com les relacions entre les experiències personals i el desenvolupament de les seves trajectòries professionals. En aquest procés s'han posat en evidència les estratègies d'adaptació, resistència i creació que les dones desenvolupen enla seva interacció amb el context de la docència, la recerca i la gestió, les formes de violència simbòlica que experimenten, i els canvis que s'han produït al centres de recerca i les universitats catalanes des de la perspectiva de gènere en els darrers trenta anys.

Dones a la ciència i a la universitat: la construcció de la identitat docent i investigadora en contextos de desigualtat

[cat] Aquest treball recull el procés i els resultats de la recerca "Dones a la Ciència i a la Universitat: la contribució de la identitat docent i investigadora en contextos de desigualtat" (2007 RDG 00001)finançada per l'Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) en la convocatòria d'ajuts per a l'estudi de desigualtats originades per motius de gènere en l'àmbit científic i universitari (RDG) per l'any 2007. La finalitat d'aquest projecte ha estat explorar i reconstruirl'experiència personal i professional de tres generacions de dones en el procés de construcció de la seva identitat com a docents, investigadores i gestores. La forma d'assolir aquesta finalitat ha estatl'elaboració de 8 històries de vida professional per tal de comprendre la relació entre les seves trajectòries i les condicions de la seva feina i esbrinar com es van convertir en la mena de donesprofessores, investigadores o gestores que ara són; així com les relacions entre les experiències personals i el desenvolupament de les seves trajectòries professionals. En aquest procés s'han posat en evidència les estratègies d'adaptació, resistència i creació que les dones desenvolupen enla seva interacció amb el context de la docència, la recerca i la gestió, les formes de violència simbòlica que experimenten, i els canvis que s'han produït al centres de recerca i les universitats catalanes des de la perspectiva de gènere en els darrers trenta anys.

Estelle Cuffe Hawley fonds, 1852-1999, n.d.

Estelle Cuffe Hawley (1894-1995) was an educator, businesswoman and politician, who became the first woman alderman on the St. Catharines City Council. She began her career as a teacher in Peterborough in 1913, and later taught in St. Catharines at Connaught School and St. Paul’s Ward School, where she served as Principal for six years. In 1928-29, she worked as an exchange teacher in Edmonton, Alberta. This would be Estelle’s last year in the teaching profession. She moved back to St. Catharines in 1930 and began a career in business, as an employee of Sun Life Assurance Co. She remained in this profession until around 1952. It was during this period that she became very active in the community and local politics. In 1934 she was elected to the St. Catharines Board of Education, where she advocated for the improvement of teachers’ salaries, the introduction of nursing services in schools, and the inclusion of music in the curriculum. She served as a member of the school board until 1937. The following year, she became the first woman elected to the St. Catharines City Council. As an alderman, she worked to improve the community's social welfare services, serving consecutively as chairman of all committees. She established comprehensive health services (including medical, dental and nursing), in the public, separate and secondary schools of St. Catharines, the first program of its kind in Canada. She was also instrumental in establishing minimum housing standards and engaging the public in local government by arranging a series of lectures by city officials. She remained a member of City Council until 1943. The following year she campaigned unsuccessfully for the mayoralty. In 1953 she married Hubert Hawley and moved to Orillia. She continued to remain active in the community, serving as President of the Ontario Recreation Association from 1950-1953, and editor of their Bulletin from 1955-1961. During the 1960s, she worked with various groups, including the Voice of Women, the Mental Health Association and the Freedom from Hunger Campaign. In addition to this work, Estelle wrote poetry and short stories, some of which were published in the Peterborough Review, the Globe and Mail and the Canadian Churchman. Some of her short stories (often about her childhood experiences) were broadcast on the CBC, as well as her experiences as a Town Councillor (under the pseudonym Rebecca Johnson in 1961). She also broadcast a segment that was part of a series called “Winning the Peace” in April 1944. Estelle was a sought-after public speaker, speaking on topics such as peace, democracy, citizenship, education, and women’s rights. In 1976, Brock University conferred an honorary Doctor of Law degree to Estelle for her leadership as an educator, businesswoman and a stateswoman. Her husband Hubert died that same year, and Estelle subsequently moved to Mississauga. With the assistance of an Ontario Heritage Foundation grant, she began work on her memoir. She later moved back to Orillia and died there in 1995, at the age of 101.

Participação de mulheres na história da Escola Mista no Pará - 1870/1901

This study aims to problematize the history of mixed schools in Pará, from 1870 to 1901, highlighting women participation that helped to build them. The analytical focus of the research fell on the changes and the continuities of the mixed school in Pará. The object of analysis is the Paraense mixed schools, formed by women. The study also brings out arguments that the mixed school was set up in variable forms, concepts, times and spaces, in an overlapping with the inclusion of women in educational universe, either through education, professionalization or teaching in schools of girls and boys. The documentary sources privileged by the study are: the educational law, the newspapers, the government reports and the journals of education, which were examined in a confrontation between what was said and done. The evidential method helped the documentary reading revealed that, in small lines, the linkages built in the search for clues and signs of Paraense mixed schools was assembled with the participation of women, from the perception that historical knowledge is indirect, conjectural. Evidences indicated that the school for both sexes, legally established in the Province of Grão-Pará in 1870, gave the signals of the junction of girls and boys in school, at a time when the presence of women in education was suggested. Mutations related to the educational organization, with the introduction of mixed school in the following decade had a closer relationship with restrictive settings and more effective integration of women in that school. The inaccuracies of the Republican mixed school have revealed, through winding paths, that signal of contradictions between the modern discourse and conservative practices regarding this school, in communion with the expansion of the mixed school throughout the state, including in groups schools, observing the presence of effective women teachers in the regency of such schools and an expansion of students in relation to the equity between the sexes

O Curso Normal de 1º Ciclo em Assu/RN (1951-1971)

The aim of this research is the analysis of the history of the Normal Course in the 1st period in Assu, Rio Grande do Norte, since its foundation by the state law no. 621, de 06 December 1951 until its demise, with the implementation of the Course of the Magisterium, by Federal Law 5692 from August 11, 1971. The goal is to answer how it was constituted the operation and the educational practices of this institution, teacher trainers, throughout its existence. For this, we analyze the institution's documents in focus interviews, legislation, of the education, newspapers and books of the season, guiding itself by the studies of Chartier (1991), Elias (2001), Certeau (2001), Frago (1995), Magalhães (2005) and Julia (2001). When dealing with an educational institution, the central category of analysis is the school culture, in which supported the cutting of specific categories of study: the entrance into the Normal Course, the conferring of a degree, the "Normalista Week‖ in Assu and formative elements. The Normal Course from 1st cycle formed teachers in a basic level, differing themselves from schools of teacher education of 2nd Cycle. It was founded in Assu as Regional Training Course and called Ginásio Normal in 1961.In the temporal cut studied, 279 women and 07 men were graduated as Regents of Elementary School, demonstrating a school attended virtually by women. In the narrative, it is restored to the inclusion of female students in the Normal Course, focusing on the processes of registration and the admission exams, graduation events, imbued with discourses on the social role of the teacher and the Party Normalista Week, which valued the sense of belonging with of students to the profession. Through theater plays in the school, of practices forming behaviors and stages of female students in elementary school, training elements are reassembled, demonstrating the discourse of modern education intermingled with the Christian Catholic values of the culture for female education. The reconstruction of the historical identity of this institution sometimes close, sometimes unique, when confronted with other schools of teacher training brings a contribution to the setting of the history of schooling in the state of Rio Grande do Norte

Mulheres e docência: histórias de vida e experiências na Amazônia ribeirinha

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de pesquisa a constituição da docência em professoras dos anos iniciais da educação básica. Partiu-se para o processo de investigação com base na assertiva de que as experiências vividas pela mulher professora são à base de sua prática no magistério, que as histórias de existência e de possibilidades asseguradas pelo tempo e espaço são os elementos que mobilizam o exercício docente das professoras que atuam nos anos iniciais da educação básica, para além da formação profissional que recebem. Assim, optou-se em fazer a pesquisa com sujeitos que tivessem passado por experiências de vida pouco comuns, distantes do lócus em geral escolhido por pesquisadores da área, isto, as escolas urbanas. Do grupo que se vislumbrou inicialmente, decidiu-se pelo trabalho com professoras de escolas de ilhas do entorno de Belém. Engajada em um projeto mais amplo sobre as professores do espaço insular da baía de Guajará, para esta dissertação, escolheu-se realizar a pesquisa junto a professoras das comunidades de Caruaru e Castanhal de Mari-Mari, na Ilha de Mosqueiro – a maior ilha do arquipélago de Belém. Para atingir a assertiva anteriormente exposta, o trabalho de pesquisa foi realizado com duas professoras que nasceram na Ilha de Mosqueiro e têm suas histórias vinculadas a este lugar. As questões de investigação que foram levantadas são: Qual a relação do espaço e do tempo da Ilha com a história de vida das professoras? Em que medida as histórias de vida imbrica-se ao exercício do magistério? Definiu-se como objetivo de estudo “analisar, por meio de registros orais, histórias de vida de professoras da Ilha do Mosqueiro, Belém do Pará, Brasil, para compreender a docência na Amazônia”. Metodologicamente, valeu-se das estratégias de investigação da História Oral, optando, em particular, pela História Oral de vida. Desse modo, utilizou-se a técnica da entrevista não-estruturada ao longo de dois anos com as professoras. Os resultados indicam que o magistério é sim uma profissão especialmente marcada pelas experiências de vida e que a própria formação profissional assume um lugar muito particular ao se articular a essas experiências. Pode-se afirmar que o espaço onde vivem as professoras tem relação direta com o exercício da docência e que isto deve ser considerado tanto nas formações continuadas, nas semanas pedagógicas, quanto nas políticas educacionais direcionadas às professoras das Ilhas. As histórias de vida das duas professoras aproximam-se quando elas relatam as dificuldades enfrentadas para se escolarizarem e os desafios superados no exercício da atividade docente. Estas histórias também se aproximam quando ambas tratam do ingresso no serviço publico como professora por meio de concurso. Ao se constatar que há um maior número de professoras atuando nessas escolas que não tem vínculo com o lugar, e que, por isso, estão alheias às bases das condições objetivas dos alunos de aprender, coloca-se em questão as formas de ingresso e de alocação de professores nas escolas pelo poder público. A diferença entre a prática de quem é do lugar e de quem não é indicam nesse estudo que é preciso, inclusive, rever a própria concepção de concurso público e das condições de possibilidades das professoras formadas em espaços não urbanos da cidade de Belém.

Entre Aracne e Atena: professoras em situação de violência doméstica

Este estudo tem como tema a violência doméstica contra professoras e toma como objeto os registros sobre esse fato presentes em Inquéritos Policiais da Delegacia de Atendimento à Mulher de Santarém-PA. A questão central da pesquisa consiste em problematizar: quais articulações entre a condição de violentada e o status profissional de professora são apresentadas no processo de denúncia, via inquérito policial, por professoras em situação de violência doméstica no município de Santarém? A partir dessa indagação central o objetivo geral da pesquisa volta-se para analisar as articulações entre a condição de violentada e o status profissional de professora presentes nos inquéritos policiais, articulado com a investigação das confluências entre as discussões sobre as relações de gênero, a violência doméstica e os direitos humanos das mulheres e a compreensão das formas de atravessamento entre os marcadores sociais das professoras em situação de violência doméstica. O tratamento metodológico foi pautado em um estudo qualitativo que se vale da pesquisa documental, por meio da análise de conteúdo dos Inquéritos Policiais da DEAM de Santarém, documentos estes que registram não só a ocorrência da violência como também o contexto em que ocorreram os atravessamentos dos diferentes marcadores sociais assumidos pelos sujeitos, autores das agressões e agredidas e suas intersecções. O marco teórico da pesquisa está pautado na perspectiva relacional que busca compreender a violência contra as mulheres resultantes das redes de relações de poder entre homens e mulheres e entre estes e os marcadores sociais que assumem. As análises conclusivas evidenciam que as tramas da violência doméstica contra as mulheres são complexas e marcadas por questões, tais como: a persistência na submissão à violência doméstica das docentes embora independam economicamente do agressor; a diferença geracional entre as docentes e os autores das agressões é marcada por homens mais jovens versus mulheres maduras, em processo de envelhecimento; o baixo nível de escolaridade dos agressores e o baixo prestígio da ocupação que desenvolvem em relação ao nível de escolaridade e posição social da profissão das docentes agredidas que possuem profissão definida, de natureza intelectual e reconhecida socialmente; as denúncias contra os autores das agressões só ocorreram após os motivos extremos de ameaças de morte e exposição pública da violência em uma profissão de natureza pública, a de professora; que o registro da ocorrência concretiza a alternância de poder nas relações de gênero e da própria violência doméstica, visto que na dinâmica da circulação de poder com os autores das agressões, as professoras agredidas reconheceram-se também como detentoras de poder, avançando da condição de vítimas para a de protagonistas; que na situação de violentadas, as professoras, foram capazes de perceber fios invisíveis naturalizados na teia da violência doméstica, partindo para o enfrentamento público, a denúncia.