Miss Sweden and Master Tutnäsa : A study about four teachers in children’s literature from a gender perspective

This study has been conducted as a literary analysis of four chapter books for children in the early years of compulsory school: Magister Tutnäsa, Vilken fullträff, Astrakan, Sune och tjejhatarligan, and Alva och Dum-Julia. The aim has been to analyse four teacher characters from a gender perspective. The study has focused on the teachers’ personal characteristics and whether these are typically female or male. Another aim has been to study how the character reinforces or runs against stereotyped gender patterns. Stephens’s and Andræ’s matrices of femininity and masculinity in literature have been used. The result shows that all the teachers in the analysed books are portrayed in a nuanced way. The characters display examples of both gender stereotypes and gender-transgressing characteristics. Stereotyped gender patterns are something that school is supposed to counteract. This can be done by working with literature. For this reason, another aim has been to show how teachers can purposefully use literature in the school’s work for gender equality