Suchergebnisse

This article illustrates the ways in which citizenship education can contribute to the marginalisation of women. It focuses particularly on the form of citizenship education recently implemented in England and Wales to demonstrate the gender assumptions of liberal and civic republican traditions, especially the privileging of individualism over collectivism, rationality over the affective domain and difficulties associated with the notion of gender difference. Some of the consequences of the separation between public and private civic spheres are to be found in the marginalisation of sexuality, lesbian and gay citizenship, and violence against women. Alternative conceptualisations of citizenship education would engage in the controversial changes in family life and in gender relations, would 'recognise diversity' and promote notions of female power and agency. These gender-sensitive educational agendas would contribute more effectively to creating mature democratic societies.

This article traces the ways in which equality debates, particularly those concerned with race and gender, have entered into the framing of the National Curriculum and its consultation processes. It analyses the approach taken by the National Curriculum Council and subject working groups to issues of gender and race in education. The conclusion is reached that the processes of consultation have been used by the Conserva tive Government, primarily, as a means of legitimation and control. Equal opportitnities has had little effect on the construction of the curriculum, since it has been defined as a problem of implementation. The responsibil ity for promoting social justice has again been transferred from central government to teachers as agents of reform, despite attacks on teacher autonomy. The effect of such processes of policy formation has been to reinforce the ideology of the curriculum's neutrality.

What does gender equality mean for young men and women in poor communities across different countries? The Millennium Development Goals aim to achieve basic education for all by 2015. But can such global agendas address national and local gender inequalities and will they empower women through education? New research on gender education makes an important contribution to this global debate. Shailaja Fennell and Madeleine Arnot have brought together leading international scholars and a new generation of researchers working within development studies, gender studies and education. The result is a thought-provoking book that offers an opportunity to engage critically with existing and emergent conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches.