ABSTRACT
Teaching and teacher education, espeCially at the elementary level, are historically related to the construction of teaching itself as ‘women’s work’. They are articulated with changes over time in the sexual and social divisions of labor and patriarchal and class relations. By focusing on the United States and England, the chapter demonstrates that as teaching changes from a predominantly male to a predominantly female occupation, the constitution of the job changes as well. It is subject to significantly greater controls over teaching and curriculum at the level of teacher education and in the classroom. It is structured around a different set of class and gender dynamics. The transformation of teachers’ work was not accepted passively, however, teachers were active figures in this process, though their actions often had contradictory results.
