Language Shift as a Way of Acquiring New Citizenship and a Profession: The Educational Background of the First Female Students at the Jyväskylä Teachers Seminary

Abstract

This article sheds light on gendered aspects of the early years of the Finnish teacher training system. It focuses on the first generation of female students at the Jyväskylä Teachers Seminary in central Finland, their educational background, and their language competences. My main sources are the students’ applications to the seminary, which I explore with the help of the collective biographical method. The Jyväskylä Teachers Seminary, the first Finnish-language teacher training college for elementary school teachers in Finland, was established in central Finland in 1863, partly in response to the increasing significance of the Finnish language to the nation. For the girls who entered the seminary, their preparatory private education and the language shift they experienced there from Swedish to Finnish were significant factors both in their training as teachers and in the opportunity to gain a public profession of their own, as well as a new kind of female citizenship. Most of these women had graduated from private schools or had only private tutoring at home.