The influence of curricula content on English sociology students’ transformations: the case of feminist knowledge

ABSTRACT

Previous research identifies the importance of feminist knowledge for improving gender equity, economic prosperity and social justice for all. However, there are difficulties in embedding feminist knowledge in higher education curricula. Across England, undergraduate sociology is a key site for acquiring feminist knowledge. In a study of four English sociology departments, Basil Bernstein's theoretical concepts and Madeleine Arnot's notion of gender codes frame an analysis indicating that sociology curricula in which feminist knowledge is strongly classified in separate modules is associated with more women being personally transformed. Men's engagement with feminist knowledge is low and it does not become more transformative when knowledge is strongly classified. Curriculum, pedagogy and gender codes are all possible contributors to these different relationships with feminist knowledge across the sample of 98 students.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender codes
• curriculum
• pedagogy
• qualitative analysis
• academic disciplines

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to the students and the academic staff who were gave us their valuable time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Statistical data for England are largely produced as part of a wider data set for the UK which includes universities in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

2. Frank is using the term course to refer to what would usually be called a module in the UK context.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council [grant number RES-062-23-1438].