From elite traditions to middle-class cultures: images of secondary education in the anniversary books of a Finnish girls’ school, 1882–2007

Abstract

This article concentrates on visual sources relating to secondary education, and asks how a collection of photographs can be understood and interpreted as part of the institutional and collective memory of one Finnish girls’ school. The photographs were published in the anniversary books of the school. They construct an entirety, where public memories are interwoven with individual and private reminiscences. The article examines how the traditions of jubilee books and the institutional setting of the school establish the boundaries for the visual narratives of the collection and how the self-image and identity of the school and its gendered nature are visualised in the corpus. The long period (1882–2007) opens up possibilities for studying how the changes in the Finnish education system and the alteration of the girls’ school to a co-educational school are presented in the photographs, and how these photographs create the imagery of gender, class, equality and co-education.

Keywords:

• Visual sources
• photographs
• secondary education
• girls’ school
• gender
• class

Notes

¹ S. Braster, I. Grosvenor, and M. del Mar del Pozo Andreás, “Opening the Black Box of Schooling. Methods, Meanings and Mysteries,” in Black Box of Schooling: A Cultural History of the Classroom, ed. S. Braster, I. Grosvenor and M. del Mar del Pozo Andreás (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2011), 9–20.

² Ibid.

³ C. Wall, “Picturing an Occupational Identity: Images of Teachers in Careers and Trade Union Publications 1940–2000,” History of Education 37, no. 2 (2008): 317–40. See also I. Grosvenor, “On Visualising Past Classrooms,” in Silences and Images: The Social History of the Classroom, ed. I. Grosvenor, M. Lawn and K. Rousmaniere (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 88.

⁴ Braster et al., “Opening the Black Box,” 9–20; C. Burke and H. Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph: Portraiture and the Art of Assembling the Body of the Schoolchild,” History of Education 36, no. 2 (2007): 213–26; I. Grosvenor, M. Lawn, A. Nóvoa, K. Rousmaniere and H. Smaller, “DEBATE,” Paedagogica Historica 40, no. 3 (2004): 316–32.

⁵ F. Comas Rubí and B. Sureda García, “The Photography and Propaganda of the Maria Montessori Method in Spain (1911–1931),” Paedagogica Historica 48, no. 4 (2012): 571–87.

⁶ M. Nieminen, “Tyttöoppikoulusta ammattiin – Turun suomalaisessa jatko-opistossa 1800–1900-lukujen taitteessa opiskelleiden urapolut,” Kasvatus & Aika 6, no. 3 (2012): 5–24.

⁷ L. Rossi, “Muisti, muistot ja muistitietohistoria,” in Tulkinnan polkuja. Kulttuurihistorian tutkimusmenetelmiä, ed. A. Nivala and R. Mähkä (Turku: Kulttuurihistoria, 2013), 49–81.

⁸ M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 38.

⁹ Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, 38, 182–85; E. Apfelbaum, “Halbwachs and Social Properties of Memory,” in Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates, ed. S. Radstone and B. Schwarz (New York: Fordham University Press, 2010), 77–92.

¹⁰ J. Fentress and C. Wickham, Social Memory (Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992), 47–49.

¹¹ M. Douglas, How Institutions Think (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987), 69–70.

¹² K. Hodgkin and S. Radstone, “Feature: Rethinking Memory. Introduction,” History Workshop Journal 59 (2005): 129–33.

¹³ E. Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia,” in Muistitietotutkimus. Metodologisia kysymyksiä, ed. O. Fingeroos, R. Haanpaa, A. Heimo and U-M. Peltonen (Helsinki: SKS, 2006), 245–70.

¹⁴ J. Kalela, Making History: The Historian and Uses of the Past (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 2–5, 63–67.

¹⁵ The concepts of individual and collective memories and public–private dichotomy: see also Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 224–25.

¹⁶ Fentress and Wickham, Social Memory, 7.

¹⁷ Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia,” 245–70; I. Grosvenor and M. Lawn, “Portraying the School: Silence in the Photographic Archive,” in Visual History. Images of Education, ed. U. Mietzner, K. Myers and N. Peim (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005), 85–107.

¹⁸ See Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia,” 245–70; Grosvenor and Lawn, “Portraying the School,” 85–107.

¹⁹ For instance, C. Burke and I. Grosvenor, “The Progressive Image in the History of Education: Stories of Two Schools,” Visual Studies 22, no. 2 (2007): 155–68; Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia,” 245–70.

²⁰ Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26. See also Grosvenor, “On Visualising Past Classrooms,” 91–92.

²¹ Burke and Grosvenor, “The Progressive Image in the History of Education,” 155–68.

²² Wall, “Picturing an Occupational Identity,” 317–40; Grosvenor and Lawn, “Portraying the School,” 85–107.

²³ See also M. Depaepe and B. Henkens, “The History of Education and the Challenge of the Visual,” Paedagogica Historica 36, no. 1 (2000): 10–17.

²⁴ Grosvenor et al., “DEBATE,” 316–32. See also Grosvenor, “On Visualising Past Classrooms,” 88; I. Dussel, “The Visual Turn in the History of Education and its Transformation in Pedagogical Discourse”, in Rethinking the History of Education. Transnational Perspectives on its Questions, Methods, and Knowledge, ed. Th. S. Popkewitz (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 29–49.

²⁵ I. Grosvenor, “The School Album: Images, Insights and Inequalities,” Educació i Història 15 (2010): 149–64.

²⁶ Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ See also Grosvenor, “On Visualising Past Classrooms,” 91.

²⁹ Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26.

³⁰ See C. Wall, “Picturing an Occupational Identity,” 317–40; Grosvenor et al., “DEBATE,” 316–32.

³¹ Archives of the Secondary and Upper Secondary School for the Finnish-speaking Girls in Turku. The Provincial Archives of Turku.

³² J. Salminen, “Yksityiset oppikoulut autonomian aikana,” in Yksityiskoulujen historia 1872–1977, ed. J. Salminen, J.-P. Pietiäinen and J. Teperi (Helsinki: Painatuskeskus, 1995), 19–22, 73–6; K. Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980. Oppikoulu ja sen opettajat koulujärjestyksestä peruskouluun (Oulu: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Pohjoinen, 1982), 19–40.

³³ Salminen, “Yksityiset oppikoulut autonomian aikana,” 21–22.

³⁴ Anderson, “The Idea of Secondary School in Nineteenth-Century Europe,” Paedagogica Historica 40, nos. 1 and 2 (2004): 93–106.

³⁵ Salminen, “Yksityiset oppikoulut autonomian aikana,” 21–22, 73–76.

³⁶ J. Goodman, “A Cloistered Ethos? Landscapes of Learning and English Secondary Schools for Girls: An Historical Perspective,” Paedagogica Historica 41, nos. 4–5 (2005), 589–603; Salminen, “Yksityiset oppikoulut autonomian aikana,” 54–55.

³⁷ Salminen, “Yksityiset oppikoulut autonomian aikana,” 30–32.

³⁸ J. Goodman, “Comprehensive Re‐organisation: Debating Single‐Sex and Mixed Education in Wiltshire 1967–1985,” Journal of Educational Administration and History 36, no. 2 (2004): 159–69.

³⁹ L. Ketonen, “Suomen tyttöoppikoulut autonomian aikakaudella,” Helsingin yliopiston kasvatustieteen laitoksen tutkimuksia 53 (1977): 80–81; L. Ketonen, “Suomen tyttöoppikoulut itsenäisyyden aikana peruskoulujärjestelmään siirtymiseen asti.” Helsingin yliopiston kasvatustieteen laitoksen tutkimuksia 85 (1980): 88–89.

⁴⁰ The Archives of the Secondary and Upper Secondary School for the Finnish-speaking Girls. The Provincial Archives of Turku; A. Linné, “Lutheranism and Democracy: Scandinavia,” in Girls’ Secondary Education in the Western World, eds. J. Albisetti, J. Goodman and R. Rogers (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 133–46.

⁴¹ Archives of the Secondary and Upper Secondary School for the Finnish-speaking Girls. The Provincial Archives of Turku.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ J. Rantala, “Oppikoulunopettajat,” in Valitus ja koulunpenkki. Kasvatus ja koulutus Suomessa 1960-luvulta 1960-luvulle, ed. A. Heikkinen and P. Leino-Kaukiainen (Helsinki: SKS, 2011), 308–09; Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 485–86.

⁴⁴ R. Rinne and A. Jauhiainen, “Koulutus, professionaalistuminen ja valtio. Julkisen sektorin koulutettujen reproduktioammattikuntien muotoutuminen Suomessa,” Turun yliopiston kasvatustieteiden tiedekunnan julkaisusarja A:128 (1988); Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 489–90.

⁴⁵ J. Albisetti, “The Feminization of Teaching in the Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Perspective,” History of Education 22, no. 3 (1993): 265–75.

⁴⁶ Archives of the Secondary and Upper Secondary School for the Finnish-speaking Girls. The Provincial Archives of Turku.

⁴⁷ Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 357–9, 397–8, 402–03; Archives of the Secondary and Upper Secondary School for the Finnish-speaking Girls. The Provincial Archives of Turku.

⁴⁸ S. Ahonen, “Yleissivistävä koulutus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnassa,” in Tiedon ja osaamisen Suomi. Kasvatus ja koulutus Suomessa 1960-luvulta 2000-luvulle, ed. P. Kettunen and H. Simola (Helsinki: SKS, 2012), 144–75.

⁴⁹ Rantala, “Oppikoulunopettajat,” 308–09.

⁵⁰ S. Ahonen, “From an Industrial to a Post-industrial Society: Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” Educational Review 54, no. 2 (2002): 173–81.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² A. Nóvoa, “Ways of Saying, Ways of Seeing: Public Images of Teachers (19th–20th Centuries),” Paedagogica Historica 36, no. 1 (2000): 20–52.

⁵³ Rinne and Jauhiainen, “Koulutus, professionaalistuminen ja valtio,” 176; see also Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 485.

⁵⁴ Burke and Grosvenor, “The Progressive Image in the History of Education,” 155–68.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ K. Rousmaniere, “Questioning the Visual in the History of Education,” History of Education 30, no. 2 (2001): 109–16.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ M. Kaarninen, “Oppikoulu yhteiskunnan rakentajana,” in Valitus ja koulunpenkki. Kasvatus ja koulutus Suomessa 1960-luvulta 1960-luvulle, ed. A. Heikkinen and P. Leino-Kaukiainen (Helsinki: SKS, 2011), 405–29; M. Kaarninen and P. Kaarinen, Sivistyksen portti. Ylioppilastutkinnon historia (Helsinki: Otava, 2002).

⁵⁹ See also Burke and Grosvenor, “The Progressive Image in the History of Education,” 155–68; Rousmaniere, “Questioning the Visual in the History of Education,” 109–16.

⁶⁰ For example, Linné, “Lutheranism and Democracy: Scandinavia,” 133–46.

⁶¹ M. Vuorio-Lehti, “Constructing Firm Faith in Education: Finnish Films in the 1930s and the 1940s,” in Visual History: Images of Education, ed. U. Mietzner, K. Myers and N. Peim (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005), 85–107.

⁶² Wall, “Picturing an Occupational Identity,” 317–40.

⁶³ See the Anniversary Books of the Girls’ School.

⁶⁴ S. Braster, “Educational Change and Dutch Classroom Photographs: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis,” in Black Box of Schooling: A Cultural History of the Classroom, ed. J. Braster, I. Grosvenor and M. del Mar del Pozo Andreás (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2011), 21–38; S. Braster, “How (Un)useful are Images for Understanding Histories of Education? About Teacher Centeredness and New Education in Dutch Primary Schools: 1920–1985,” Educació i Història 15 (2010): 123–48.

⁶⁵ Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980, 460.

⁶⁶ See also I. Grosvenor and M. Lawn, “Days out of School: Secondary Education, Citizenship and Public Space in 1950s England,” History of Education 33, no. 4 (2004): 377–89.

⁶⁷ See the Anniversary Books of the Girls’ School.

⁶⁸ See also Ahonen, “From an Industrial to a Post-industrial Society: Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” 173–81.

⁶⁹ See also Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26.

⁷⁰ See also Grosvenor and Lawn, “Portraying the School,” 85–107; Wall, “Picturing an Occupational Identity,” 317–40; Braster et al., “Opening the Back Box,” 9–20.

⁷¹ See Makkonen, “Instituution suullinen historia,” 245–70; Grosvenor and Lawn, “Portraying the School,” 85–107.

⁷² See the Anniversary Books of the Girls’ School.

⁷³ See, e.g., Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26.

⁷⁴ Rousmaniere, “Questioning the Visual in the History of Education,” 109–16.

⁷⁵ See Nóvoa, “Ways of Saying, Ways of Seeing,” 20–52.

⁷⁶ See Braster, “Educational Change and Dutch Classroom Photographs,” 21–38; Braster, “How (Un)useful are Images for Understanding Histories of Education?,” 123–48.

⁷⁷ See also Ahonen, “From an Industrial to a Post-industrial Society: Changing Conceptions of Equality in Education,” 173–81.

⁷⁸ Burke and Ribeiro de Castro, “The School Photograph,” 213–26.

⁷⁹ See also Kiuasmaa, Oppikoulu 1880–1980.

⁸⁰ K. Vehkalahti and L. Suurpää, “Johdanto: Nuoruus, sukupolvet ja oman elämän kirjoittaminen,” in Nuoruuden sukupolvet. Monitieteisiä näkökulmia nuoruuteen eilen ja tänään, ed. K. Vehkalahti and L. Suurpää (Helsinki: Nuorisotutkimusverkosto, 2014), 5–29.

⁸¹ Compare M. Uitto, “Humiliation, Unfairness and Laughter: Students Recall Power Relations with Teachers,” Pedagogy, Culture & Society 19, no. 2 (2011): 273–90; S. Spencer, “Reflections on the ‘Site of Struggle’: Girls’ Experience of Secondary Education in the late 1950s,” History of Education 33, no. 4 (2004): 437–49.