Gender and Curriculum
Gender and Curriculum
Gender and Curriculum
Author(s): S. J. Crump
Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 11, No. 4 (1990), pp. 365-385
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1392873
Accessed: 11-04-2019 21:53 UTC
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British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol. 11, No. 4, 1990 365
James (15 years old) (Extensions in Mathematics school course): the girls
aren't afraid of much you know. They think they can do anything, (they
think) no-one's going to stop them. Then the boys come along and the
girls tell them to shut up.
Mr Atari (Basic Word Processing school course): if anything, I find the
girls are the more able students who work well with computers. They're
usually more cluey about what's going on. (...) I find that they (girls) see
themselves as the students in control in the classroom at that time. So, if
anything, there's been a number of instances where the boys have put
their hand up and asked for help from the girls.
Educational reforms and legislative initiatives in Australia and internationally
during the 1970s and 1980s allowed many schools to develop a broad curriculum
which presented possibilities for changes to the gender patterns of subject
selection. In Australia, during the 1980s, the Disadvantaged Schools Programme
and the Participation And Equity Programme were both national policy projects
which provided funds to a large number of schools for the development of
strategies aimed at reducing disadvantages and increasing secondary school
retention rates. 'Carpenter' High School, a co-educational comprehensive gov-
ernment school located in the working class western suburbs of Sydney, provides
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366 S. J. Crump
one instance of outcomes from this funding [1]. In deciding the effectiveness of
the provision for addressing gender equity issues within the curriculum at
Carpenter, the question investigated concerned the extent to which these policy
reforms and educational innovations incorporated the perceived and real prob-
lems of female students.
Gender-bound practices have been a constant feature of all the planned and
unplanned experiences within our schools. The orientation of this study unequi
vocally acknowledged that curricular content and practices are experienc
through gender relations which unequally distribute power between male and
female students. Many of the problem-solving programmes of the studen
cultures at Carpenter High School provided further evidence confirming this
Yet, unequal distributions of power also need to be understood as unequ
distributions within gender groups. At Carpenter, second class problem-solvers
such as less academic, impoverished, immigrant and Aboriginal female students
were disadvantaged within the common curriculum in comparison to the pow
derived from the privileged choices this curriculum offered, for example, to
Anglo-Saxon Celtic, academic, affluent females. Similar inequitable structures o
power existed between groups of male students; however, female students tend
to be the most disadvantaged through the further imbalance of power they oft
experienced from the exercise of less dominant cultural perspectives.
The different dispositions, perspectives and practices of male and femal
students suggested the presence of student cultures based on gender. In th
Carpenter study, instances of intercultural understanding between teachers and
female students, in particular, demonstrated a level of cooperation and under
standing that potentially empowered female students to build up an effective
strategic problem-solving programme within the school. Most female student
involved in the study were judged to be more amenable to change in scho
contexts than male students and were judged to be responding to a number of
policy-supported initiatives from the school, for example, ones which aimed t
raise female student awareness of career issues. The links between male students
and the curriculum were also examined. Fathers were judged to take, or t
more able to take, a greater interest in the education and career prospects
their sons than their daughters. Ironically, this tended to maintain the li
career options included in the perspectives of these male students. Even t
male students were the most overtly powerful student group in the s
context, this power was perceived to hold elements of its own demise
illustrated through the example of the differences between male student 'h
for' and 'expected' career choices.
The methodological approach taken assumed that a culture is marked by
of ways of behaving and understanding. This provides a description of 'cultu
the whole way of life of a social group. The study thus attempted to analys
Carpenter school community as a developing whole which changed through
though marked by competing cultures. For teachers, the competition was be
those who responded to the impetus for curricular reforms (identified as 'I
tors') and those who were more guarded in their responses (identified as '
tionalists'). Student's cultures, despite different sets of perspectives, diff
friendship groups and a variety of ethnic backgrounds, were judged, b
researcher, to be marked by an overriding uniformity in their particular respon
to traditional syllabus-driven classwork, when compared to their response
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Gender and Curriculum 367
The aim of the Carpenter study was to investigate teacher and student approaches
to solving problems as observed at the school level in such a way as to allow a
broad level of cultural analysis. The interplay of data from student interviews and
student/parent responses to the subject selection questionnaire became the main
tool for the examination of the coherence of these problem-solution repertoires.
The methodological approach recognised teachers and students as capable of
conducting or contributing to valid educational research. The research was
designed, therefore, to assess the extent and array of problem-solving practices in
social relations, to assess group levels of awareness of these, to include action as
well as descriptive and empirical components and to test and expand the theory.
The research began as an ethnographic, participant-observer cultural study in
what was my own workplace. Through the evolution of the research practices, my
role changed to one of acting as an agent in the construction of a process of
change. The study was committed, therefore, to the realisation of better relations
of schooling at the research site.
The design of the Carpenter study took into account Woods' (1985) claim that
there are a number of aspects to consider for encouraging 'theoretical sensitivity'
in new studies: the selection of topics, moving from descriptive to cumulative and
corrective studies; greater openness to other substantive studies in the same area
and others, and to different theortical approaches and methodologies; and,
improving powers of theoretical insight through a creativity encouraged by a
reflective attitude. The value of ethnography, therefore, came to be seen in
relation to the development, rather than generation, of coherent and valid
theory. The challenge then became one of assessing which theory offered the
'best' current explanation.
The choice, in this instance, was Materialist Pragmatism [MP] (Evers & Walker,
1982; Walker, 1985). What Woods (1985) suggested above is explained by MP as
a rational competition between theories. Instead of accepting the best of several
inadequate theories, Evers (1987) argues for a coherence theory of evidence
which makes the best or most coherent theory that which possesses more virtues
of simplicity, fecundity, scope and consistency than any of its rivals. While MP
guided the theoretical orientation of the study, different emphases from four
epistemic, curricular and sociological research programmes came together to
provide complementary emphases. These include Woods' (1979, 1986) view of
the subject selection process, Grace's (1978, 1984, 1987) insights into the
occupational culture of teachers and urban schools, Smith's (1985) analysis of
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368 S. J. Crump
A basic premise of the research was that an effective way to study teacher and
student groups was to inquire into their problem-solving programmes. A prob-
lem-solution analysis starts with 'problems' as perceived by cultures or subcul-
tures. The solutions are the practices or strategies acted on in response to specific
problems. Differences within and between programmes are also linked to differ-
ences in power within and between groups. For example, Carpenter's teachers
mainly acted as transmitters of centrally-devised syllabi. This provided them with
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Gender and Curriculum 369
Gender
A decade ago, Miller (1980) argued, against the trends, that interventionist
policies embody deficit-hypotheses which involve a culture-centric paternalism
and possible psychic violence to the doubly-bound 'disadvantaged' dependent
female. The analysis of the Carpenter study also challenged those interventionist
theories which gave a too simplistic account of 'invisibility' and/or lack of
confidence in female students and which isolated them in passive roles. The
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370 S. J. Crump
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Gender and Curriculum 371
staff rather than students. Of the two student-based activities, one did not run
because the teacher involved was transferred, the other related to the pilot classes
for single-sex science teaching in Year 10. In 1987, the federal government
financed, through the nation-wide Participation and Equity Programme, a school-
level budget of $22,608 for Carpenter. School documents revealed that 78% of
this money was spent on employing casual teachers in order to provide release
time for teachers to develop curriculum, write assessment policies, and the like.
The other 22% financed resources, residential accommodation for conferences,
ancillary staff overtime and support services. The issue was clearcut: there was a
divergence between teacher and student cultures about the worth of the Project
For Girls because female students were not participants and the strategies were
not designed to include student perspectives. Therefore, the majority of female
students who were interviewed identified the Project For Girls strategies with the
culture of the project teachers, not as strategies necessarily or directly designed to
solve female student problems. As the Carpenter team was part of a cluster of
project teams in nearby schools implementing similar strategies, it is likely that
this scenario was not limited to the Carpenter context.
Single-sex Classes
One policy direction popular in the 1980s saw the creation of single-sex classes
for mathematics and science in co-educational schools, classes designed to assist
'invisible' female students. In England, Bowes' (1986) research into single-sex
science teaching for third-year students suggested advantages for female students,
and their quickness in exploiting these, compared to the males' lingering resent-
ment and lesser ability to cope with the change. Yet, in 1987, Australian
researchers, Gill & Dyer, explored the implications behind Spender's 'invisibility'
thesis (1982) and challenged the way it relegated women to a passive role. Gill &
Dyer regarded such studies of classroom talk as simplistic and damaging in that
they represented girls as too passive.
The findings of the Carpenter study suggested that those female students who
were interviewed and observed were not limited to passive roles and were
equivocal about the purpose, nature and outcomes of the single-sex pilot scheme
for Year 10 Science. The following comments were fairly representative:
fl: I don't like it!
f2: All you ever do is sit around and gossip.., .about boys!
fl: Yeah! (Laughter)
Q: Are girls asking questions in science or doing things they didn't do
last year?
fl: I don't think it's made any difference at all. I don't know... I've
forgotten the purpose of it... because they think girls work less hard...
Q: Yeah... not as likely to do the experiments, and...
fl: Yeah, but I think that's wrong...
In rejecting much of the scheme, these student comments indicated that the idea
was imposed from outside ("they think"), not one that students were drawn into
and accepted or, preferably, one they posed within their own cultural perspec-
tives. I would argue-despite the worth of the science class project-that if
students do not believe the options facing them are realistic, then female cultural
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372 S. J. Crump
perspectives are unlikely to change. This could well explain why students 'gos-
siped' rather than took advantage of what could have been a unique experience.
What this strategy failed to take into consideration was just how science and
mathematics classes function in practice, and how the perspectives reflected in
female student behaviour influenced student career aspirations. One other
critical point which the previous transcript suggested was that if strategies such as
single-sex classes are seen as imposed from outside, then the power relations
between teacher and students in the classroom will not change. Though male
students had been removed from the interactions, that did not guarantee that
teachers would hear or see female students any more than they had before, nor
would the teachers' interpretative scheme necessarily alter. I followed this point
up with another group:
Year 9 Extensions in Mathematics:
Q: They say girls are 'shy' in Science... that's why we've got this single-
sex class.
ml: I think you just learn more in the subjects that help you more (to get
a job).
fl: in English you do more of your own work. If people are shy, they (the
teachers) don't think they're good in English.
m2: Boys aren't really shy (but) it's been proven that boys aren't as
mature as girls... (boys) are afraid to say what they think...
These students hint at what the researcher frequently observed at Carpenter:
first, the extent of student power over other students in the classroom was
dependent on individual personality-aggressive people dominated teacher time,
excluded fellow students and did more of the activities; second, the extent and
incidence of power relations between students, and between teacher and
students, was related to different teaching practices (teacher talk; blackboard
work; textbook work; group work; individual research); and third, students were
very pragmatic about what they did in the classroom-altruistic goals such as
'improve self-esteem' needed to be linked closely in a student's mind to those
practical issues which students feel are important to their futures.
Therefore, there will have to be much more practical student/teacher negotia-
tion over classroom practices and the curriculum for science and mathematics to
become relevant to female cultural perspectives. It will take time before female
student practices and attitudes alter so that the social benefits of girls-only science
classes-be more active, ask more questions, do more of the experiments-
materialise into academic results. Yet, this outcome is vital, given that female
student awareness of the range of career paths open to them has increased, as has
a realisation of the importance of making the best subject choices for senior
school (Bowes, 1986). If female student academic performance does not reach
the levels required by the new careers towards which students aspire, it is quite
likely that they will abandon these aspirations.
Student Behaviour
Gender perception by teachers often determines the power that is held by student
groups. This process generally disempowers female students. There has been little
recognition in educational research, however, of the confidence which female
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Gender and Curriculum 373
Mr Atari: If anything, I find the girls are the more able students who
work well with computers; they're usually more cluey about what's going
on. I find that, when it comes to peer help within the classroom, it's
always the girls who will get up and go over to other computers-where
some of the boys are having trouble with them-they're (girls) usually
the ones to help. I find that they (girls) see themselves as the students in
control in the classroom at that time. So, if anything, there's been a
number of instances where the boys have put their hand up and asked
for help from the girls. So, I think the guys look for guidance from the
girls.
The female students' behaviour, in this example, might be cited as yet another
case of male students exploiting the sharing and co-operative nature of female
students' preferred learning practices. Yet, what this response would need to
explain is why attributes of invisibility and low self-esteem were not overtly
evident. Not only did these female students recognise their high levels of
competence in word processing with computers, but this was also recognised by
the (male) teacher and, more significantly, by most male students. One competing
interpretation could be that the content was really only 'typing', a traditional
female task and skill. Yet, the context-computing-was one noted as a mascu-
line domain. Alternatively, female students might have been more attuned to the
purpose of the lessons.
Further, the research at Carpenter challenged Gill's & Dyer's (1987) proposi-
tion that male students are situated more powerfully than female students in a
classroom because male student behaviour is more in line with the dominant
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374 S. J. Crump
Q: What happens when you get in the computer room. Do boys grab all
the machines?
f4: No. The boys muck around more than the girls. The girls get a lot
more work done than what boys do really.
Q: Muck around with the computers or 'muck around'...?
f4: Yeah (the latter). They just sit there and talk. They might get about
two lines done in two periods and the girls are all finished their work...
Q: So you get a pretty good go on the computers?
f3: Yeah.
Most female students tended to ignore disruptions made by either gender group.
The majority of female students openly sympathised with the teacher and at-
tempted to affirm acceptable behaviour for their classroom. Being 'invisible'
(Spender, 1982) or part of the 'audience' (Gill, 1985) or even in the 'supporting
cast' (Walker, 1988) did not necessarily equate with negation of one's own self.
These findings conflicted with Spender's (1982) assumption that receiving a
disproportionate quantity of teacher time was a necessary condition for learning,
or the reverse. Though male behaviours and attitudes at Carpeter did rob female
students of teacher time in many classrooms, this did not necessarily advantage
males.
Over-active male behaviour outside the classroom was more tolerated than
misbehaviour within the class; once again this often occurred at the ex
female students. Teacher toleration in this context also did not imply con
between the perspectives of male students and teachers. One further p
this issue was raised when a female student commented during an inter
"... boys muck around in public, girls don't". Male students challeng
observation:
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Gender and Curriculum 375
Year 9 Drama:
Q: OK we talked about boys and girls in the class. What about the rest o
the school? Do you think boys and girls get treated differently?
f4: Well, do you think guys are picked on a lot more? (asking the rest o
the group)
Various: Yeah.
This was not only a problem between students and teachers. The group went on
to discuss the way females exhibited greater problem-solving power outside the
classroom:
f4: We can say, "I want someone to talk to, come and help me"...
fl: And the guys couldn't do that. I don't think there's one guy in this
school who's said 'Hey, someone come and talk to me'... (when he had
a problem).
f4: (interrupting) But it's not like we're inferior or anything, it's just
because we can say...
f3: (also interrupting) We can let it out!
f4: I think that's better. With the guys, with their best friends, they don't
even talk to them about it, they just say 'It's my problem'...
J2: (Adopting a husky voice)... 'I can handle it... I'm a guy!'...
(Laughter).
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376 S. J. Crump
f3: (Stirring) The guys just rabbit on about nothing! (Therefore, are
unsuitable for public speaking).
m2: The girls aren't afraid of much you know. They think they can do
anything.., .no-one's going to stop them y'know... then the boys come
along and the girls tell them to shut up.
fl, f2, f3: (Together) Yeah!! (Laughter).
What was revealed in this part of the discussion was m2's unrealised desire
make public speaking his first selection. He had reluctantly opted for anot
course because he was aware that his own level of self-confidence about pu
speaking did not match that of female students he was familiar with, even thoug
as all of these students were in the top classes for most subjects, the level of
confidence stemming from academic ability was very similar for each student. Th
incident was not an isolated case, as this discussion from a much more dispa
and mostly lower ability, student group testifies:
Year 9 Drama:
Q: Do you think boys and girls make their (subject) choices the same, or?
fl: Boys get more embarrassed than girls when they're acting.
f3: Yeah, they do.
fl: I thought girls were really shy with acting out but you find a lot of
boys won't do things that a lot of girls will!
These female student representations of male misbehaviour illustrate the ne
question our understanding about levels of confidence and the visibility of g
groups. Male students did not have a monopoly on visibility nor on high lev
confidence, nor was it possible to cast most female students as deficient in
characteristics in those school-course classrooms as observed at Carpenter
One way of approaching this point is to consider the interaction between stu
and the organisation and authority of the school. The welfare and disc
policy of Carpenter involved the teacher and disruptive students followin
number of procedures to talk over a conflict and agree on a remedy. If wha
interviews have suggested so far about male misbehaviour is generally true f
school, then it would be highly unlikely that the welfare and discipline p
would be as effective with male students as for females. The school counsellor
provided support for much of what the female students suggested abov
pointed out that there were three aspects related to gender patterns ex
through his role in the school:
I think I probably see more boys, I think, because girls with min
problems tend to see the Mistress-in-Charge of Girls. As far as k
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Gender and Curriculum 377
coming to see me on their own, probably, I'd get more girls coming
see me as self-referrals. On long-term cases, I'd probably get more boy
I think, probably, because the girls have had to seek out more help ov
the years--[menstrual] periods and that-so, they tend to go to some
one more than a boy would.
According to the school counsellor, more male students, than female, had
long-term problems and the problems of male students were ones ident
teachers, not by the student. Many female students, in stark contrast, k
to seek out help from a number of sources and were self-motivated and c
enough to approach school executive staff about minor and major probl
the above cases, it was males who lacked self-confidence, though the ex
bravado associated with their disruptive behaviour might suggest other
some researchers.
There is a rich literature on subject selection, much deriving from Woods' (19
study of the subject choice process of Lowfield. In the Carpenter study, int
viewed students of either sex consistently presented a strong streak of individ
ism about subjects they selected in the junior school and for the senior years.
remained true in some cases where sex clashed with perceptions of the gend
base traditionally ascribed to the subject. I asked the only boy who elected t
study drama how he felt:
Year 9 Drama:
ml: Well, I don't know how I feel about it. I suppose boys are mor
interested in doing other subjects, but it (drama) can be just as impor
tant for boys as well as for girls.
fl, 2, 3, 4: (together): Yeah.
Q: How did you feel the first day?
ml: I felt like there'd be three or four boys in the class at least!
Q: Did that make you want to get out?
ml: (Firmly) No. I wanted (his emphasis) to do Drama.
I asked another group made up of female students:
Year 9 Computers In The Business World:
Q: When choosing subjects, do you think about it in terms of what se
you are, or?
f2: It's... like... you're an individual and you should do what you want
to do, it shouldn't matter what else you do.
When I suggested to an interview group that some subjects, for example, Human
Movement and Computer Studies, might be seen as masculine, the students
responded:
Year 9 Drama:
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378 S. J. Crump
seventeen years before, in which a female student commented "The boys' life at
school is supposed to be more profitable than the girls'. For it is they who
support the wife and the children because they're the head of the family." (Encel,
1974, p. 189). Many of Carpenter's students, particularly female students, were
on the way to new understandings about gender roles and the influence of the
school's curriculum on defining those roles. Whether these same students were
confident that most teachers, and many of their parents, shared these new
understandings was a question the Carpenter study only partly resolved. Most
Traditionalists, the school's careers adviser and many male students' fathers
appeared unable to respond to the extent necessary to ensure students would
transform new understandings into new actions. The school had reached an
equivocal stage with its attempts to free the timetable structures and, so, free
student choices from gender bias in the junior school. Gender divisions had been
largely overcome in some subject areas, while they were still reflected in the
selection of others. I asked another group:
Year 9 Basic Word Processing:
Q: What about other subjects? Do you think boys and girls make choices
the same?
The data from the senior subject selection questionnaire offered quantitative dat
which could be contrasted or compared to the interview and observation data
concerned with gender and curriculum. Whilst the qualitative data provide
powerful empirical evidence because it allowed an understanding of the motiva
tions, expectations and decision-making behind the responses to the question-
naire, the quantitative data provided another dimension to the picture of student
subject selections, of career decisions, and of the role of the teachers in th
subject selection process. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data
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Gender and Curriculum 379
thus provided a strong base of data from which to make effective contac
student perspectives, especially in relation to how students linked present
realities with future career possibilities.
The explanation, proffered in this paper, for changes to subject selection
career aspirations identified the female students, assumed a strong conne
between the way they structured career options through selecting approp
subjects for the senior school and the way the female students aimed to p
this strategy by aspiring for a career choice beyond traditional, over-supp
rapidly disappearing employment prospects (Table I).
Female students
Male students
1987: Police x 7
1988: Police X 4
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380 S. J. Crump
First night: p<0.10 [X2= 2.627; df= 1; a = 0.05] Does not permit rejection of Ho
Second night: p<0.05 [X2 = 5.104; df= 1; a = 0.05] Permits rejection of Ho
Ho: There is no difference between the proportions of gender groups attending the school's senior
subject information evenings; July, August, 1987.
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Gender and Curriculum 381
TABLE III. Carpenter High School-educational aims for the senior school, 1987
Question 11d: An important aim of the senior school is to occupy students until they go out to work.
p<0.025 [X2]= 6.393; df=2] Permits rejection of Ho
H1: Significantly more Year 10 female students consider keeping students occupied until they get a
job is an important aim for the senior school.
Question 11 e: An important aim of the senior school is to prepare students for a job.
p<0.01 [X2=5.975; df= 1] Permits rejection of Ho
H1: Significantly more Year 10 female students consider preparation for a job an important aim for
the senior school.
Ho: There is no difference in the proportions of male/female samples over the importa
educational aims for the senior school (where a=0.05).
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382 S. J. Crump
assumptions about gender and work construed in the female students' culture
during the junior years had not yet adjusted to the rapid developments and
changes expressed through their own practice of selecting subjects for the senior
school. That is, the decision of many female students to return to the senior
school to undertake an academic programme of study aimed at tertiary entrance
had not fully counteracted latent perspectives within their own culture about
women as lowly and transient participants in the workforce.
Nevertheless, female students were, individually, just as sure as male students
about what senior programme choice they should make (Table IV). A X2 test
identified no significant difference between the proportions of male and female
students who selected the academic senior programme. A solid core of female
students took up the senior programme of study that offered a route to a more
experimental (for their social background) career, as this academic programme
was essential for matriculation to a tertiary education.
Programme 1 (matriculation): 36 35
Programme 2 (non-matriculation): 13 12
X2=0.015; df= 1; a=0.05; p<0.475 Does not permit rejecti
Reflections
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Gender and Curriculum 383
I think something is happening in this school in that sense. The very fact
that people are talking about these things.., .what you're doing has
helped. You wonder why I'm so enthusiastic about your whole research
process. It's because I like to help, but it's also because it's very, very
helpful to the school and the teachers.
student active visibility and confidence, and the consequent cultural conver
with teachers, then the problem-solving power of those purposes gat
strength, not just from their clarity but also from the wider range of ca
options which they created for female students. A number of positive strat
which female students adopted in order to articulate their own cultural ide
indicated significant potential problem-solving power for female students th
achieving strategic convergence with the Initiator and Traditionalist t
cultures. This should bear fruit if it is increasingly the case that female stu
are the more enduring and more successful group in the senior school
1985).
In this respect, female students can be more powerful than males in the s
yet, at the moment, female students are left in a second-class position. Th
remains a political problem for those female students researched at Carpe
problems of fully expressing their intentions, expectations and opinions.
argued that this is mainly a group problem, rather than an individual one
therefore, one that needs to be addressed in entirely new ways. This pape
presented a study of how individuals change their practices in various sha
contexts. Without a recognition of these changing dispositions and cul
perspectives in social and educational policy decision-making, schools will
allow opportunities for growth and will remain miseducative, particularly
girls.
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384 S. J. Crump
NOTES
[1] The name of the school and all persons have been changed. It is unfortunate that I ca
openly acknowledge the huge debt I owe those who participated in the research.
[2] fl = first female to speak from the start of the interviews; f2 = second female to speak,
ml=-the first male and so on.
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