«A true fatherly affection». The affective profile of primary school male teachers in Argentina between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century

Resumen

Based on the contributions of the emotional or affective turn and historical studies on masculinities, this article questions the affective profile of the male primary school teacher in Argentina between the last two decades of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century. The work with documentary sources (in particular, with educational magazines and reports produced by the headmasters of normal schools) reveals that, in the period in question, there were explicit references to gentle and affectionate teachers. The usual reading that establishes an equivalence between the affective side of teaching and the modern female stereotype turns out to be insufficient to interpret this phenomenon, and this article seeks other ways of inquiring. Throughout the article it is evident that the process of feminization of the teaching profession was not without conflicts and that the demand for male teachers was a constant request. The proposed conclusion is that, when looking at the affective side of the primary school teacher of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the prism of available masculinities, it is possible to notice a juxtaposition between, on the one hand, the model of normative masculinity that highlighted virility, on the other, the enlightened sentimental masculinity forged in the European 18th century and with effects in Latin America in the 19th century and, finally, the reconfigurations of paternity outlined towards the 20th century.