Educating the Other: Gender, Power and Schooling

150 Pages·1998·3.172 MB·English

by  Carrie Paechter

Educating the Other
Master Classes in Education Series
Series Editors: John Head, School of Education, Kings College, University of
London and Ruth Merttens, School of Teaching Studies, University of North
London
Working with Adolescents: Constructing Identity
John Head Kings College, University of London
Testing: Friend or Foe? The Theory and Practice of Assessment and Testing
Paul Black Kings College, University of London
Doing Research/Reading Research: A Mode of Interrogation for Education
Andrew Brown and Paul Dowling both of the Institute of Education,
University of London
Educating the Other: Gender, Power and Schooling
Carrie Paechter School of Education, The Open University
Master Classes in Education Series
Educating the Other:
Gender, Power and
Schooling

Carrie F.Paechter

The Falmer Press
(A member of the Taylor & Francis Group)
London • Washington, D.C.
UK Falmer Press, 1 Gunpowder Square, London, EC4A 3DE
USA Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101,
Bristol, PA 19007

© C.F.Paechter 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in
writing from the Publisher.

First published in 1998

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library

ISBN 0-203-48681-1 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-79505-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0 7507 0774 7 cased
ISBN 0 7507 0773 9 paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available on
request

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission
to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from
any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to
rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
Contents
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Who or What Is the Other? 5
Woman as Other 7
The Gaze 9
The Female as Other in Education 11
The History of Women’s Education 11
Reason and Moral Development 14
Male as Subject: The Gaze Is on the Girls 15
Summary: Key Points 16
Further Reading 17
3 Gender Differences in School 19
Life in School 20
Male Domination of Space and Time 20
Male Domination of Classroom Talk 24
Girls’ Resistance to Male Domination 26
Subject Takeup in Secondary Schools 27
Assessment, Achievement and Examinations 31
Deficit Models and the Schooling of Girls 34
Summary: Key Points 35
Further Reading 36
4 Gender as a Social and Cultural Construction 38
Introduction 38
Issues of Biological Sex 40
The Development of Gendered Identities and Roles 43
The Construction of Gender and Gender Roles in
Western Society 45
Gender as Dimorphic 46
Gender Roles Involve a Power Relation 48
Compulsory Heterosexuality 50
Summary: Key Points 51
Further Reading 52
v
Contents
5 Reconceptualizing Gender Issues in Education 54
Introduction 54
Power/Gender 55
Gender, Power, Pedagogy and the Learning Child 57
Conclusion 61
Summary: Key Points 62
Further Reading 63
6 Revaluing Female Voices 64
Challenging the Mastery of Reason 64
Reason and the Discourse of Empowerment 66
Challenging Reason: Gender and Moral Development 71
The Implications of Gilligan’s Work for Education 75
Summary: Key Points 78
Further Reading 79
7 Some Voices Are More Equal than Others: Subject and
Other in the School Curriculum 80
Design and Technology and Physical Education:
Life in a Marginal Subject 81
Gendered Subject Ideologies and the Social Control
of the Working Classes 82
D&T and PE as Low Status Subjects 85
Students and Subjects as Parallel Others 89
Summary: Key Points 91
Further Reading 92
8 Subordinated Femininities and Masculinities in
Secondary Schools 93
Introduction 93
Subordinated Masculinities 93
Sporty Girls 99
Lesbians and Gay Males in School 103
Summary: Key Points 107
Further Reading 107
9 Strategies: A Toolkit 109
‘Traditional’ Gender Monitoring 109
Collating quantitative evidence 109
Examining curriculum materials 110
Classroom observation 110
Examining the Relationship between Space and Power 111
Classroom plans 111
Staffroom plans 111
Access to virtual space 112
Deconstruction: What-if-Not? 113
vi
Contents
Summary 114
Further Reading 114
10 Conclusion 115
Bibliography 118
Index 131
vii
For Pip
Series Editors’ Preface
It has become a feature of our times that an initial qualification is no longer
seen to be adequate for life-long work within a profession, and programmes
of professional development are needed. Nowhere is the need more clear than
with respect to education, where changes in the national schooling and
assessment system, combined with changes in the social and economic context,
have transformed our professional lives.
The series, Master Classes in Education, is intended to address the needs of
professional development, essentially at the level of taught masters degrees.
Although aimed primarily at teachers and lecturers, it is envisaged that the
books will appeal to a wider readership, including those involved in
professional educational management, health promotion and youth work. For
some, the texts will serve to up-date their knowledge. For others, they may
facilitate career reorientation by introducing, in an accessible form, new areas
of expertise or knowledge.
The books are overtly pedagogical, providing a clear track through the topic
by means of which it is possible to gain a sound grasp of the whole field. Each
book familiarizes the reader with the vocabulary and the terms of discussion,
and provides a concise overview of recent research and current debates in the
area. While it is obviously not possible to deal with every aspect in depth, a
professional who has read the book should be able to feel confident that they
have covered the major areas of content, and discussed the different issues at
stake. The books are also intended to convey a sense of the future direction
of the subject and its points of growth or change.
In each subject area the reader is introduced to different perspectives and to
a variety of readings of the subject under consideration. Some of the readings
may conflict, others may be compatible but distant. Different perspectives may
well give rise to different lexicons and different bibliographies, and the reader
is always alerted to these differences. The variety of frameworks within which
each topic can be construed is then a further source of reflective analysis.
The authors in this series have been carefully selected. Each person is an
experienced professional, who has worked in that area of education as a
practitioner and also addressed the subject as a researcher and theoretician.
Drawing upon both pragmatic and the theoretical aspects of their experience,
they are able to take a reflective view while preserving a sense of what occurs,
and what is possible, at the level of practice.
ix