Gender and the Politics of the Curriculum (Routledge Library Editions: Education) - Softcover

Riddell, Sheila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 113800636X ISBN 13: 9781138006362

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Sheila Riddell

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 113800636X
• ISBN 13: 9781138006362
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280