The Prophet and the Virgin: the Masculine and Feminine Roots of Teaching

The Prophet and the Virgin was first published by Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston, and Miami: 2003. The Prophet and the Virgin seeks to answer the question, how, when and why men and women became teachers? The background to this question is the invention of writing followed by the creation of schools about 1000 years after. From beginning and against this background, the Prophet and the Virgin traces the evolution of teaching as an occupation from its beginnings in Sumer in Ancient Mesopotamia through its transformation in Ancient Greece; then through its adaptations in the classical eras of Judaism, Islam and Christianity particularly in England, and then in the United States, the first nation-state of the New World and finally in the British colonies of the West Indies. The Prophet and the Virgin ends with a majestic view of teaching rooted in vision, values and virtue.

In essence, the Prophet and the Virgin is a historical sociology of the teaching profession with a special focus on the gender of teachers. It is an exploration by a teacher of science, with post-graduate degrees in the social psychology of education, and a career in teacher education to better understand what it is to be a teacher and to be a teacher educator. It is a work that cannot be read overnight. Its 437 pages include 225 references. The writing is clear but the subject-matter multidisciplinary and sometimes dense. The intended readers are those deeply interested in and sometimes conflicted about who teachers are in society, particularly as societies and civilizations are changed by technological revolutions. The Prophet and the Virgin was written over a period of 20 years and with the assistance of Fellowship and Sabbatical leave from the University of the West Indies and two Fulbright Fellowships for Senior Academics through which access was gained to the Libraries of Stanford, Harvard and Columbia Universities.