The administration of feminism in education

Revisiting and remembering narratives of gender equity and identity

Bibliographic Data

ID10105964
AuthorsJulie Mcleod (0000-0002-4083-8700, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume49
Issue4
Pages283-300
Publication date2017-07-11
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Educational Administration & History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0620 • E-ISSN: 1478-7431
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00220620.2017.1343289
OpenAlexW2734620030
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited50

This article examines challenges in writing histories of feminist reforms in schooling and educational administration. The focus is gender equity reforms in Australian schools since the 1970s, looking at how those earlier interventions are now remembered, represented and forgotten, in policy memory and collective narratives. Such feminist endeavours were part of the policy landscape and the administration of schools during the 1970s and 80s. I argue that feminist agendas can also be examined as themselves sites for managing the conduct of teachers and students and for regulating new forms of identity and social relations. These paradoxical aspects of feminist reform are analysed through a Foucauldian lens. The discussion identifies contextual themes in JEAH before considering debates within gender and feminist history. A revisiting mood has initiated a stocktake of the stories told not only about feminism but also the accounts feminism gives of itself. Extending this, I propose that critical attention to memory and the movement of received and revised historical narratives is vital for analysing the legacies of feminist reforms and how they might be (re)animated in the present. More broadly, it is suggested that attention to policy memory offers fruitful directions for historical studies of educational administration

Aesthetics · Equity (law · Feminism · Identity (music · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · Law

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