The Social Class Origins of U.S. Teachers, 1860-1920

Bibliographic Data

ID9079307
AuthorsK Sohn, Kyung-Ah Sohn (0000-0001-8941-1188, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume45
Issue4
Pages908-935
Publication date2012-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jsh/shr121
OpenAlexW1983366949
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

In spite of its importance for understanding teachers and teaching in the past, the issue of the social class origins of US teachers from 1860 to 1920 has largely been neglected. Using the IPUMS-USA, this paper attempts to answer whether teaching was an engine of upward mobility into the middle class for relatively well-educated daughters of skilled workers and of low manual workers. The results suggest that the teaching profession was mainly occupied by individuals from the middle class and farms, and it is they, not individuals from the lower class, who improved their socioeconomic standing. In addition, more systematic analyses show that most of the opportunities for upward mobility were presented to teachers whose fathers were immigrants, who resided in small places in the Northeast in early years, and who grew up on farms.

Class (philosophy) · Epistemology · Invisibility · Mathematics education · Memoir · Neglect · Pedagogy · Political science · Social class · Social studies · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Education Methods and Practices · Law · Psychology · School Choice and Performance

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