In this innovative book, four prominent philosophers of education introduce readers to the central debates about the role of gender in educational practice, policymaking, and theory. More a record of a continuing conversation than a statement of a fixed point of view, The Gender Question in Education enables students and practicing teachers to think through to their own conclusions and to add their own voices to the conversation.Throughout, the authors emphasize the value of a gender-sensitive perspective on educational issues and the relevance of an ethics of care for educational practice. Among the topics discussed are feminist pedagogy, gender freedom in public education, androgyny, sex education, multiculturalism, the inclusive curriculum, and the educational significance of an ethics of care.The multiauthor, dialogic structure of this book provides unusual breadth and cohesiveness as well as a forum for the exchange of ideas, making it both an ideal introduction to gender analysis in education and a model for more advanced students of gender issues.

This book uses detailed case studies of two secondary schools to examine the relationship between curriculum choice and gender identity among fourteen-year-old pupils making their first choices about what subjects to pursue at exam level. It reveals a two way process. Pupils’ decisions on what subject to take are influenced by how they perceive themselves in gender terms, and the curriculum once chosen reinforces their sense of gender divisions. The author looks at the influences on pupils at this stage in their lives from peers, family and the labour market as well as from teachers. She argues that the belief in freedom of choice and school neutrality espoused by many teachers can become an important factor in the reproduction of gender divisions, and that unless the introduction of the national curriculum is accompanied by systematic efforts to eradicate sexism from the hidden curriculum it will fail in its aim of creating greater equality of educational opportunity among the sexes.

Originally published in 1987. The perspectives, research methods and strategies adopted by researchers and teachers to investigate gender and education have been diverse and contradictory. This book provides an overview of developments and analyses the range of policy responses to the issues of sex inequality as well. Divided into six parts, the first indicates the range of feminist theories conceptualizing gender and provides context for the following parts on equality of opportunity; gender, power and schools; and studies on class, race and gender. The last parts explore how education and training provision in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were shaped by assumptions about masculinity and femininity; and examine patterns of policy making on equal opportunities at teacher, local and national levels.

Race, Gender, and Curriculum Theorizing: Working in Womanish Ways recognizes and represents the significance of Black feminist and womanist theorizing within curriculum theorizing. In this collection, a vibrant group of women of color who do curriculum work reflect on a Black feminist/womanist scholar, text, and/or concept, speaking to how it has both influenced and enriched their work as scholar-activists. Black feminist and womanist theorizing plays a dynamic role in the development of women of color in academia, and gets folded into our thinking and doing as scholar-activists who teach, write, profess, express, organize, engage community, educate, do curriculum theory, heal, and love in the struggle for a more just world.

This book provides an illuminating account of teachers’ own reflections on their experiences of teaching in urban schools. It was conceived as a direct response to policy-related and media-generated concerns about male teacher shortage and offers a critique of the call for more male role models in elementary schools to address important issues regarding gender, race and the politics of representation. By including the perspectives of minority teachers and students, and by drawing on feminist, queer and anti-racist frameworks, this book rejects the familiar tendency to resort to role modelling as a basis for explaining or addressing boys’ disaffection with schooling. Indeed, the authors argue, on the basis of their research in urban schools in Canada and Australia, that educational policy concerned with male teacher shortage and the plight of disadvantaged minority boys would benefit from engaging with analytic perspectives and empirical literature that takes readers beyond hegemonic discourses of role modelling. A compelling case is presented for the need to disarticulate discourses about role modelling from a politics of representation that is committed to addressing the reality of the impact of racial and structural inequalities on both minority teachers and students’ participation in the education system. The book also provides insight into the persistence of gender inequality as it relates to the status of elementary school teaching as women’s work.

This book uses detailed case studies of two secondary schools to examine the relationship between curriculum choice and gender identity among fourteen-year-old pupils making their first choices about what subjects to pursue at exam level. It reveals a two way process. Pupils' decisions on what subject to take are influenced by how they perceive themselves in gender terms, and the curriculum once chosen reinforces their sense of gender divisions. The author looks at the influences on pupils at this stage in their lives from peers, family and the labour market as well as from teachers. She argues that the belief in freedom of choice and school neutrality espoused by many teachers can become an important factor in the reproduction of gender divisions, and that unless the introduction of the national curriculum is accompanied by systematic efforts to eradicate sexism from the hidden curriculum it will fail in its aim of creating greater equality of educational opportunity among the sexes.

Gender can be difficult to define, but it's something that's a part of all of us and who we are. This book isn't meant to answer all the questions or tell you how you identify. It's meant to help kids and grownups understand gender and create an open and safe environment for kids to question, experiment, and discover their authentic selves. Meet A Kids Co., a new kind of media company with a collection of beautifully designed books that kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups. Learn more about us at akidsco.com.