ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a study of the gender politics of teacher dismissals in Danish village schools in the early twentieth century. In this period the village schools went through a process of modernization and professionalization. The dismissal cases are interesting because they make visible some of the conflicts in the everyday life of schools in relation to the teacher’s role. In these cases, social norms and pedagogical ideals are formulated quite explicitly in a way that is rare in most sources of school history. In several dismissal cases the schoolmistresses were middle-aged women who were accused of inadequate teaching or harshness. Some of them lacked the competence and self-confidence that formal teacher training could have given them. Both male and female teachers were judged according to the increased requirements in qualifications and the new pedagogical ideals that spread after the turn of the century.
