Abstract
Discussion of the philosophy of education in relation to gender in the West originated in debates about the role and content of girls’ education. These debates were both elucidated and complicated by the introduction of the term ‘gender’ and its takeup within education research. While the emergence of gender as a conceptual framing for this work has allowed researchers to focus away from biological explanations and consider how schools might intervene to help students make less stereotyped choices, it has also reinforced the lack of focus on the body that is a feature of much of school life. Subsequent research has taken a mainly sociological approach, focused most recently on gender expression, sexism, issues of identity, particularly trans issues, and sexual and gender violence.
Much contemporary gender and education research is strongly influenced by the philosophy of gender, especially the writings of Judith Butler. This theoretical framework, however, has been developed without reference to children and mainly arises from work on the body politic and ideas about compulsory sexuality as a condition of participation in civil society. These ideas have been developed from the points of view both of adult sexuality and of adults as full social participants. Consequently, the application of these ideas directly to children, and especially to young children, is problematic. The chapter examines why this is the case and recommends that researchers be more aware of the origins of the theories they use when studying children and gender.
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Paechter, C. (2018). Gender and the Philosophy of Education. In: Smeyers, P. (eds) International Handbook of Philosophy of Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_69
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