[The Gender Question in Education: Theory, Pedagogy & Politics]

Abstract

The Gender Question in Education: Theory, Pedagogy, and PoliticsAnn Diller, Barbara Houston, Kathryn PaulyMorgan and Maryann Ayim, eds.Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1996; 249 pp.Reviewed by Tara Goldstein Department of Curriculum Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto Toronto, OntarioThis rich volume of essays has been put together by four feminist philosophers of education - two from Canada and two from the United States - who tell us that the work in their book reflects more than two decades of philosophical inquiry. While reading through the essays, the reader gets the sense that Ann Diller (Education, University of New Hampshire), Barbara Houston (Education, University of New Hampshire), Kathryn Pauly Morgan (Philosophy, Women's Studies, Bioethhics, University of Toronto), and Maryann Ayim (Education, University of Western Ontario) have been talking to each other about issues of and education for a long time and what they have done in this book is summarize the thinking and questions that have emerged from years of dialogue and discussion so that others could listen in on their latest conversations.The essays are organized into three parts, providing readers with multiple points from which to enter the authors' conversations. The first part focusses on theoretical questions that can be raised in discussions of and education, the second part moves back and forth between theory and practical questions of pedagogy, and the third part applies theory to specific problems of educational practice and politics. The group of essays of that focusses on theory begins with an essay by Ayim and Houston that examines what it means to talk about sexism in education from a philosophical point of view. All four authors write from a gender - perspective on education which was first suggested by Jane Roland Martin in a presidential address to the Philosophy of Education Society in 1981. Fifteen years ago, Martin's - sensitive critique of the standard idea of the educated person electrified and, in some cases, horrified her audience with its argument that the traditional ideal reflected a male cognitive perspective which did harm to both men and women. Moving from a philosophical analysis of what sexism and sexist education looks like to a discussion of what can been done about it, the authors offer the reader a set of three possibilities as to how issues related to discrimination might be taken up theoretically. Ayim discusses the possibility of a traditional form of education in which girls and boys are taught their own clearly differentiated, socially determined roles; Morgan outlines an education that aims to abolish all differentiation from our schools and classroom practices, and Houston argues for the adoption of a gender - form of education that attempts to challenge bias by developing a critical awareness of the meaning and evaluation people attach to gender. Morgan then moves the discussion beyond these first three educational alternatives by inquiring into the possibility of using androgyny as an educational ideal to challenge sexism in the school system. Part one ends by raising the question of whether it is, in fact, helpful to try to theorize at all. In the last essay in the first part of the book, entitled Theorizing gender: How much of it do we need?, Houston examines educational proposals that reflect postmodern discussions around deconstructing the concept of gender.Having provided the reader with a sophisticated but accessible introduction to many of the central theoretical debates about the role of in education, the authors include two other sets of conversations that focus on ways to envision anti - sexist educational practice (Part 2) and ways to address a variety of practical political issues (Part 3). …