Education and Gender
EPE 667
Spring 2007
Dr. Karen Tice
134b Taylor Education Building
Office phone: 257-7976
Home phone: 233-1773
e-mail: kwtice01@pop.uky.edu
Course Description:
This seminar is designed to provide a broad overview of the themes and debates falling
under the rubric of gender, cultural studies, and education, especially the ways that race
and ethnicity, class, gender, nationality, and sexuality mediate student and teacher
subjectivities and shape the processes and organization of schooling. Our explorations
will be both historical as well as contemporary as we explore the dynamics of
marginialization, power, authority, location, and privilege, both within and outside the
classroom, as well as the impact of gendered and racial ideologies on the production of
knowledge, teaching, learning, identities, and communities. We will also examine the
ways that popular culture influences schooling. Finally, we will explore various efforts to
transform educational practices. Multidisciplinary readings will be drawn from education,
feminist theory, cultural studies, history, sociology and other fields.
Requirements:
1. Class Preparation and Participation. (5% of the final grade)
The success of the seminar depends upon the preparation and participation of all members.
We are all writers, readers, and interpreters and I hope we all can try on new arguments and
ideas teaching ourselves and each other. The content of our discussions is the responsibility
of us all. You will be expected to be prepared for each class meeting by completing the
readings, preparing questions and critical comments, and being actively involved in
seminar conversations. In order to prepare for each seminar, students should analyze all
course readings with some of the following general questions in mind: Who are these texts
intended for? What audiences are specified? What assumptions are made about education,
knowledge, gender, identity, academic scholarship, and activism? What new analytic
spaces do these readings open up? What are some of the key concepts and methods? What
kind of intellectual and political alliances are made possible in these readings? How do you
connect these readings to other texts of this course and from your other classes? How do
the ideas in the readings connect to your own projects? What connections are made visible
that you might not have seen or noticed before reading this? I strongly suggest that students
prepare for seminar by writing a short outline/paragraph to help them craft and organize
your reactions to course readings each week.
Attendance is required. Only one unexcused absence will be permitted during the semester.
Unexcused absences will lower your grade.
2. Discussion Co-Facilitator: Designated Drivers. (20% of the final grade)
Each week, two of you will be the "designated drivers." As "designated drivers,” students
will assist the instructor in facilitating seminar discussion. This role entails being prepared
to present the main arguments of each of the readings; identify areas of debate and key
themes that may strike you as particularly illuminating, dense, vivid, contradictory etc.;
make connections with previous readings and discussions; and provide sparkplugs and
starting points for seminar conversations. In order to give others a chance to prepare,
designated drivers should circulate discussion questions a day before the class meets. Feel
free to use PowerPoint, media clips and other supplementary materials to spark discussion.
(Snacks have been a hit in past classes!) Additionally, designated drivers will need to
submit a critical commentary on their readings. In this essay, you need to address the
following areas:
1) Briefly summarize the main argument(s) that particularly interest you (one or two
paragraphs only).You do not need to address all of the arguments made in the set of
weekly readings;
2) Outline in a couple of pages the major contributions and weaknesses of the arguments;
3) Position your discussion within the main currents of feminist theorizing that we are
exploring in this seminar by weaving in material from other texts we have read in this
seminar as well as readings from other coursework;
4) Identify unresolved issues in the readings or seminar discussions or indicate how ideas
in the readings might be useful for your own research/teaching;
This reactive essay is due no later than the seminar following the session in which you
served as the designated driver.
3. Application Papers. (2) (40% of the Final Grade)
These two application essays are intended to provide more in-depth explorations than the
reactive essay and to afford you the opportunity to develop your own perspectives on, and
synthesis of, sections of this course. These application papers are meant to help you analyze,
critique, and integrate course material in your own work. These applications need to address
the following topical areas of the course: “Gender, Intersectionality, and Education” (Due:
March 5). For the second essay “Gendered Identities and Popular Culture,” you are
expected to “read” popular culture and examine the implicit pedagogy about race, class,
gender, consumption, and success. You might, for example, explore the representations of
students, teachers, administrators, schools, or magazines, toys, films, children’s books, or
Reality TV. (Some interesting possibilities for reality TV shows include “Campus Ladies,”
“Tiara Girls,” “Cheerleading Nation,” “College Hill,” Miss Seventeen,” and “My Super
Sweet 16,” etc.). A short presentation is due in our seminar on March 26th.
4. Final Seminar Project. (35% of the final grade)
The main purpose of this seminar paper is to afford you the opportunity to develop your
own perspectives and synthesis on the kinds of questions that form the subject matter of this
course. There are a multitude of topics that can be explored including but not limited to
popular culture and education; processes and organization of schooling, both within and
outside the classroom; how students, teachers, administrators navigate tensions about
femininity, masculinity, ethnicity, sexuality, race, and class; and institutional policies and
practices at the elementary, secondary, or higher education levels. It is expected that your
paper will integrate themes and concepts from our readings (such as intersectionality,
positionality, social constructivism) as well as additional reading beyond our assigned
course materials. A two page paper prospectus is due in class on April 9th. It is strongly
recommended that you read A. Coffey and S. Delamont. (2000) “The Research Agenda,” in
Feminism and the Classroom Teacher: Research, Praxis and Pedagogy. Routledge Falmer.
You might consider doing this assignment in one of the following formats:
1).An abstract and a 15 minute presentation for a conference or colloquium with annotated
bibliography.
2). A draft journal article.
3). A syllabus for a gender and education course with detailed commentary and rationale
Please let me know if you have other ideas for this project. Feel free to call or come to talk
with me about written work or any other aspect of the course.
Course Readings:
1. Elizabeth Higginbotham. (2001) Too Much to Ask: Black Women in the Era of
Integration. UNC Press.
2. Margaret Lowe. (2003) Looking Good: College Women and Body Image. John
Hopkins.
3. Julie Bettie. (2003) Women Without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity. California.
4. Wendy Luttrell. (1997) School-smart and Mother-wise: Working-Class Women’s
Identity and Schooling. Routledge.
5. Jane Kenway and Sue Willis. (1998) Answering Back: Girls, Boys and Feminism in
Schools. Routledge.
6. Alison Griffith and Dorothy Smith. (2005) Mothering for Schooling. RoutledgeFalmer
Other required course readings are on electronic reserve.
Tentative Travel Itinerary
1). January 22. Course Overview
Throughout the semester we will consider the following broad questions: What is gender?
How does gender affect education? What are some of the core themes and debates in
thinking about gender and education? How have these concepts changed over time? What
are the analytic tensions? How do race, ethnicity, nation, class, and sexuality work with and
through gender?
2). January 29. Introduction: Theorizing on Gender, Intersectionality, and Education
Carmen Luke. (2001) “Women in Academics: Views from the North/West,” in
Globalization and Women in Academia. pp. 3-23 241-257. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jeanne Drysdale Weiler. (2000) “Social Class, Race/Ethnicity, Gender and Schooling: A
Theoretical Overview,” in Codes and Contradictions: Race, Gender Identity, and
Schooling. pp.15-28. SUNY.
Sandra Acker. (1994) "Feminist Theory and the Study of Gender and Education," in S.
Acker, Gendered Education. Pp. 43-54. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Ana Martinez Aleman. (2003) “Gender, Race, and Millennial Curiosity,” in B. RopersHuilman (ed.) Gendered Futures in Higher Education. SUNY.
Sue Rosser. (1998) “Applying Feminist Theories to Women in Science Programs,”
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 24, no. 1, pp.171-200.
3). February 5. Introduction: Theorizing on Gender, Intersectionality, and Education
Frances Maher and M.K. Thompson Tetreault. (1996) “Women’s Ways of Knowing in
Women’s Studies, Feminist Pedagogies, and Feminist Theory," In Goldberger et. al. (Eds.)
Knowledge, Difference, and Power: Essays Inspired by Women's Ways of Knowing. Basic
Books.
Audrey Thompson. (1998) “Not the Color Purple: Black Feminist Lessons for Educational
Caring,” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 68, no. 4.
bell hooks. (2000) “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class,” The Chronicle of Higher
Education, November, 17.
Peggy McIntosh. (1992) "White Privilege and Male Privilege," in M. Andersen and P. Hill
Collins (eds.) Race, Class and Gender. Wadsworth.
Frances Maher and M.K. Thompson Tetreault. (2000) “The Making and Unmaking of
Whiteness, Gender, and Class in College Classrooms,” In N. Rodriquez and L. Villaverde
(Eds.) Dismantling White Privilege: Pedagogy, Politics, and Whiteness. Lang.
4). February 12. The Problematics of Educational Access and Integration
Elizabeth Higginbotham. (2001) Too Much to Ask: Black Women in the Era of
Integration.
5). February 19. Access, Mobility, and Climate
Ruth Farmer. (1993) “Place but not Importance: The Race for Inclusion in Academe," in
Farmer and James (Eds.) Spirit, Space, Survival: African American Women in (White)
Academe. Routledge.
Amanda Coffey and Sara Delamont. (2000) “Gender and the Teachers Careers,” in
Feminism and the Classroom Teacher: Research, Praxis and Pedagogy. Routledge Falmer
Robin Wilson. (2004) “Women in Higher Education: Where the Elite Teach, Its Still A
Man’s World,” Chronicle of Higher Education (December 3).
M. Sagaria and M. Rychener. (2004) “Inside Leadership Circles and the Managerial
Quagmire: Key Influences on Women Administrators’ Mobility,” in S. Ali (ed.) The
Politics of Gender and Education. Palgrave.
Annette Kolodny. (2000) “Women and Higher Education in the Twenty-first Century:
Some Feminist and Global Perspectives, NWSA Journal, 12, 2:130-147.
V. Adair. (2001) “Poverty and the Broken Promise of Higher Education,” Harvard
Educational Review, vol. 71, 2 (summer):217-39. (available through on line journals).
Jana Nidiffer. (2003) “From Whence They Came,” in B. Ropers-Huilman (ed.) Gendered
Futures in Higher Education. SUNY.
Lee Todd. (2002) “Women have made real progress at UK,” Herald-Leader (Dec.16).
6). February 26. Intersections: Race, Class, Gender, and Identity
Julie Bettie. (2003) Women Without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity. California.
7). March 5. Gender, Race, and Schooling the “Student Body”
M. Lowe. (2003) Looking Good: College Women and Body Image.
Application Paper Due: Gender, Intersectionality, and Education
8). March 19. Educating and Gendering the Body
Karin, Martin. (1998) “Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools,” American
Sociological Review, 63, 4, (August):494-511.
Kristina Llewellyn. (2006) “Performing Post-War Citizenship: Women Teachers in
Toronto Secondary Schools,” The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies,
28, pp. 309-324.
Vivyan Adair. (2003) “Disciplined and Punished: Poor Women, Bodily Inscription, and
Resistance Through Education,” in V. Adair and S. Dahlberg (eds.) Reclaiming Class:
Women. Poverty, and the Promise of Higher Education. Temple.
Sandra Lee Bartky. (1996) “The Pedagogy of Shame,” in Carmen Luke (ed.) Feminisms
and Pedagogies of Everyday Life. SUNY Press. (Electronic reserves).
Susan Bordo. (2003) “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies,” The Chronicle of
Higher Education. December, 19.
9). March 26. Gender Identities and Popular Culture Pedagogies
Michelle Byers. “Those Happy Golden Years: Beverly Hills, 90210, College Style,”
In Susan Edgeton et. al. (EDS.) Imagining the Academy: Higher Education and Popular
Culture, Routledge
Urla and Swedlund. (1995) "The Anthropometry of Barbie: Unsettling Ideals of the
Feminine Body in Popular Culture," in Terry and Urla. (Eds.) Deviant Bodies. Indiana
University Press.
Presentations and 2nd application paper due.
10). April 2. What about the Boys? Masculinity and Education
R. W. Connell. (1996) “Teaching the Boys; New Research on Masculinity and Gender
Strategies for Schools,” Teachers College Record, vol. 98, no. 2.
B. Lingard and P. Douglas. (1999) “Programs for Boys in Schools” in Men Engaging
Feminisms. Open University.
C. Sommers. (2000) ‘Victims of Androgyny: How Feminist Schooling Harms Boys,”
American Enterprise, 11, 4.
Consalvo. (2003) “The Monsters Next Door: Media Constructions of Boys and
Masculinity,” Feminist Media Studies, 3,1.
M. Kimmel. (2000) “Saving the Males: The Social Implications of VMI and the Citadel,”
Gender & Society, 14, 4: 494-516. (not on e-reserve but available online).
11). April 9. Working Session
Project Prospectus due
12). April 16. Gender and the Politics of Literacy
Wendy Luttrell. Schoolsmart and Motherwise: Working-Class Women’s Identity and
Schooling.
13). April 23. Gender and Reform in the Schools
Jane Kenway and Sue Willis. Answering Back: Girls, Boys, and Feminism in Schools.
14). April 30. Mothering and Schooling
Alison Griffith and Dorothy Smith. (2005) Mothering for Schooling. RoutledgeFalmer