Sue Willis

On Overcoming Sexism in Schooling: To Marginalize or Mainstream.

Single-sex schooling, in some form, is offered by many feminists as one strategy for overcoming sexist educational practices. The purpose of this paper is to indicate flaws in the evidence, the logic and the politics of this ‘strategy’. The empirical evidence in favour of single-sex schooling is of questionable value. Furthermore the strategy is limited because it focuses almost exclusively on changing the attitude and behaviour of girls and shows little potential for changing teachers, the curriculum or boys. The final section of the paper provides a less optimistic scenario of the effects of single-sex settings than is generally offered and, finally, a more appropriate focus of activity is suggested for those who wish to improve the educational experiences of girls.

Gender Justice and the Mathematics Curriculum: Four Perspectives

The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in the attention paid to gender issues in school mathematics. This has occurred at the level of policy, research and practice. In this period, we have learned a lot and much has been achieved. Gender differences in achievement and participation in mathematics no longer are regarded as either natural or inevitable. Curriculum materials and assessment tasks are, at least, less overtly sexist and, indeed, they are often more consciously inclusive of what are perceived to be the experiences and concerns of girls. Many mathematics classrooms are considerably more ‘friendly’ to girls than they once were — both in regard to the general pedagogical approach and in the way in which girls are treated. Many girls and boys are happy to assert that ‘everything is equal now’. Often their teachers and members of the general public also believe this, or even that the balance in education has swung in favour of girls and to the detriment of boys.

Sites of contestation over teacher education in Australia

Teacher education in Australia is subject to a great deal of policy interest at both Federal and State levels; it is also part of education policy shifts for the whole university sector. This paper explores Australian teacher education policy in terms of its governance, focusing on three current ‘sites of contestation’: university policy, budgetary policy, and Federal–State relations. In considering the ‘Australian case’, the authors aim to provide a case study of the ways in which ‘globalising trends’ are played out in particular cultural, historical and political contexts.

Are boys victims of feminism in schools? Some answers from Australia

This paper attends to some of the issues surrounding the controversial topic of the education of boys in Australian schools. It particularly focuses upon two questions: ‘Are boys victims of feminism in schools?’ and ‘Are boys victims of their emotions?’ In answering both questions, the authors draw from empirical studies that enquire into gender reform in schools and girls’ and boys’ responses to it. Generally, the paper makes the case for a pedagogy of the emotions in the context of gender education in schools.

Feminist dilemmas : an Australian case study of a whole-school policy approach to gender reform

Although Australia is unique for the level of state intervention and the extent of school‐based activity by feminist teachers in gender reform policy initiatives, the implementation of gender reforms has been partial, fragmented, and generally ‘addon’. By contrast, this is a case study of the integration of gender reform as a whole‐school approach. The study shows that assumptions about the nature of policy developments are as important as the substantive nature of policy, as are the ways in which feminist teachers grapple with dilemmas emerging out of their professional and personal lives. We present a feminist poststructural reading of the policy process as an alternative (and we believe better) way of understanding what happens to policy in schools‐‐how, why, and with what effect.

Gender and the restructuring of work and vocational education in Australia: some perilous possibilities

This paper discusses the restructuring of the world of work and education and training in Australia and its implications for women and girls. It outlines some of the ways in which government policies are restructuring the Australian workforce and workplaces and points to the promises this agenda makes and the possible price of these for women. It then focuses on the changes taking place in the post‐compulsory years of schooling, also in Australia, looking at both the policies that are reshaping the curriculum to make it more oriented to the workplace and at the implications this has for the post‐school options of young women. In this regard it points to the ways in which the notions of ‘a workplace’ and ‘the competent worker’ which are inherent in policy are deeply gendered, suggests that the definition of ‘effective participation’ is disempowering for workers generally and women workers particularly and that the specific vocational competencies on offer are likely to be particularly unhelpful for women a...

Computers in education: The dilemmas of equity and access

ConclusionThese are some of the issues schools, education systems, and governments must address if they are serious about equity. As was suggested earlier, the dilemma for schools is that, regardless of whether they consider certain kinds of computing experiences to be educationally valuable and cost effective, given public perceptions of the value of the experiences, to deny them to certain students may increase their disadvantage. And yet, if schools don’t take a critical stance to these developments they are unlikely to be in a position to help students, firstly, to understand the ways in which they are being pushed to consume and to possess and, secondly, to be sufficiently aware of the possible deliterious effects of technology, especially for some groups in the community, to be able to put pressure on those who currently control the technology to use it in the most humane and equitable way.