M. D. Mackie: A Passionate Intellect

Abstract

This thesis sets out to trace the making and mature achievement of a 'born' teacher. Using narrative, it employs a selection from archival material, interviews and contextual readings, of incidents, anecdotes and analysis to illustrate the heritage, early childhood, young womanhood and professional achievements of a distinguished educator, Miss Margaret Davidson Mackie. In such a project it is impossible to make a claim to represent an entire life and no such claim is made for this work. Instead, it has concentrated on drawing out several major themes. These are the theme of national and cultural background, family life and educational experience as formative influences in the personal and professional choices of one woman. The formative influences are then traced into her classroom practices as related by several former students, and theoretical writings, as represented by her books and teaching materials. These themes are immersed in a medium of beliefs and practices of gender. Throughout, a reference point is the parallel career of the subject's brother. This is intended to illustrate a contrast in life choices not solely attributable to individual differences or personal agency, but to the social forces binding on both, according to their gender. These social forces enabled certain choices and constrained others. An attempt to explain why Miss Mackie chose certain paths and resisted others is sought by reference to both the personal and public life of her family and mentors and by reference to the very few women of the era whose opportunities and choices were similar in some respects. Closure is sought by taking a glimpse at the daily life of a woman who from an early age took up and integrated her experience so that, to be a teacher became, and remained, an integral and driving force in her self-concept.