From ‘civilising the young’ to a ‘dead-end job’: gender, teaching, and the politics of colonial rule in Hong Kong (1841–1970)

Author: Chan Anita Kit-wa  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1464-5130

Source: History of Education, Vol.41, Iss.4, 2012-07, pp. : 495-514

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

The feminisation of teaching is an important topic in education and gender studies. Discussions have been enriched by comparative and international studies as well as a gendering perspective in which a complicated view of the role of the state has emerged. In colonial Hong Kong, although the government was limited in its support of teacher training, its strategic control was not ineffective. Through regulating the teaching force, the colonial regime was instrumental in training women to help civilise the young and in creating a dead end job – that of a ‘primary school teacher’. It also constantly (re)constructed the nature and role of ‘Chinese teacher’ and ‘Chinese women’. By revealing some seldom-explored strategies and disrupting the fixed meanings of ‘Chinese teacher’, ‘Chinese women’, and ‘primary school teacher’, this paper unravels the intervention and (re)invention of the colonial regime in the teaching occupation and probes their implications for a patriarchal society.