Silenced gender: the construction of a male primary educator

A trio of researchers (including the student teacher) explore the experiences of a male student teacher as he left the Marine Corps and entered his first placement in a first grade classroom. The difficulties this preservice teacher encountered in the field draw attention to the gendered nature of both the primary classroom and the elementary teacher education program. We used the student teaching journal as the primary basis for this collaborative oral inquiry of critical incidents that occurred, and highlight the way that discourses of femininity were deployed in often inconspicuous ways. We conclude with a set of recommendations for teacher education. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.