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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until May 08, 2026

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Gendered Identities, Masculinity, and Me: Analyzing Portrayals of Men Teachers in Middle-Grade Novels

Crossley, Jared Scott
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9887-3667
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1681249483402638

Abstract Details

2023, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
This dissertation is a conglomerate of three distinct, yet related, studies each exploring the question: How do the gendered experiences of a man elementary school teacher as well as portrayals of fictional men teachers in middle-grade novels contribute to the conceptualization of the gendered identities and masculinities of men who teach in the predominantly female environment of an elementary school? The first study is a content analysis of 85 middle-grade school stories using gender theory to analyze the gendered identities of 357 fictional teachers across the text set. In this analysis, I found that 40.34% of these 357 fictional teachers were constructed as men, with no transgender or nonbinary teachers in the text set. Over 90% of the teachers were constructed as White, and when they had an identified sexuality, they were most likely to be heterosexual, with only four teachers constructed as homosexual. Men teachers were most likely to be portrayed teaching P.E. or after-school classes. The teaching roles they were most likely to be shown performing included the delivery of content, the disciplining of students, and the daily management of the classroom. They were more likely than women teachers to be portrayed as fun and to give their students life advice. The second study in the dissertation is another content analysis with a much smaller text set, this time comprised of 10 middle-grade books. In this second analysis, I employ masculinity theory to examine various patterns of masculinity in the portrayals of 10 fictional teachers, each constructed as a man. In this analysis, I found that most of the fictional men teachers were constructed as successfully navigating between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities. At the same time, half of the teachers also operate to an extent within marginalized masculinities, two as gay men, two as Latinx men, and one as a Black man. These portrayals promote some gendered stereotypes of men teachers, specifically portraying them as athletic, fun, and unable to display emotions other than anger. The third and final study in this dissertation is an autoethnographic examination of my gendered identity as a man who taught elementary school. In this autoethnography, I recount the gendered experiences I had, both that led me to choose a profession as an elementary teacher, and the experiences I had while in that work. In this autoethnography, I employ a framework using masculinity theory to examine how my experiences contributed to the construction of my masculinity and find that my personal misogynistic and homophobic tendencies contributed to my thinking and behaving in specific ways as a teacher. I discovered that I aligned myself with hegemonic masculine ideologies to avoid being labeled as gay or effeminate because I was working with children.
Linda Parsons (Advisor)
Petros Panaou (Committee Member)
Lisa Pinkerton (Committee Member)
Jonda McNair (Committee Member)
213 p.
Education; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature
Middle-grade literature; content analysis; men teachers; male teachers; autoethnography; middle-grade novels; ethnography; analysis; children's literature; gender; gender studies; masculinity; masculinity studies; gender theory; masculinity theory;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Crossley, J. S. (2023). Gendered Identities, Masculinity, and Me: Analyzing Portrayals of Men Teachers in Middle-Grade Novels [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1681249483402638

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Crossley, Jared. Gendered Identities, Masculinity, and Me: Analyzing Portrayals of Men Teachers in Middle-Grade Novels . 2023. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1681249483402638.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Crossley, Jared. "Gendered Identities, Masculinity, and Me: Analyzing Portrayals of Men Teachers in Middle-Grade Novels ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1681249483402638

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1681249483402638
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.