In this article, we use a situation in a teacher education program as the basis to problematize different understandings of ”feminine” and ”masculine”. Within the program, the arrogant and condescending behavior of a group of male student teachers towards their female classmates was discussed. The men were oriented towards each other in a manner that excluded women. They demonstrated their disinterest in the seminars and they disturbed the on-going education. A group of teacher educators considered an explanation for the male students’ behavior, saying that because the men were in a program with predominantly female students and many female teachers, they were supposed to have a natural need to socialize with each other and to underscore that they were men. They would therefore need to assert themselves and rebel against the women within the program. In this article we will discuss this explanation, as well as a sex-role explanation, an individual-oriented explanation and finally an explanatory model that draws on critical masculinity studies. By situating these explanations in time and space, we show how knowledge from the field of gender studies can increase the likelihood that teacher education is a place of equal participation and inclusion.
Utbildning och lärande. Tidskrift