White Collar Vocationalism: The Rise of Commercial Education in Ontario and British Columbia, 1870–1920

ABSTRACT

The authors trace the origins of commercial education in nineteenth century middle class schooling and examine its relation to the vocational reform movements of the twentieth century. They explore the role of practical education in middle class support for secondary education, the significance for commercial instruction of the proliferation, fragmentation and feminization of office employment, and the impact on school reform of the intense competition between private and public business educators. Attention is drawn to the dynamics of gender as well as class in the emergence of vocationalism and the shaping of public education.