The Mother, the Hairdresser, the Teacher: Exploring Gendered Vocational Teacher Identities in Hairdressing Education

Abstract This article explores how the professional identities of vocational teachers are negotiated within the context of Swedish school-based hairdressing education, emphasising the influence of gender in these processes. Research has shown that vocational teachers navigate between an identity as a teacher and one related to the vocation they teach. However, limited attention has been given to how they are positioned by their students and how they, in turn, position themselves in these interactions. Addressing this gap, the study combines positioning theory with a social constructionist perspective on gender to analyse the positions of vocational teachers in hairdressing education. Such knowledge is beneficial for understanding vocational teachers work and identity in vocational education and training (VET). Based on ethnographic data from Swedish upper secondary schools, three dominant subject positions emerged: the Mother, the Hairdresser, and the Teacher. Gender plays a critical role in these positions, with femininity being reinforced in the roles of the Mother- and the Hairdresser position, while norms of masculinity emerge in the Teacher position, often manifested through control and authority over students. Teachers relate to the positions by aligning with or distancing themselves from them, depending on the discourses available to engage with. They find themselves in a complex situation when the discourses within which available positions are constituted conflict with each other.