‘They don't associate it with feminism’: in-service educators' conceptions of gender-inclusive curriculum [1]

Abstract

This article seeks to address significant gaps in educational policy discourses. Namely, to respond to professional development discourses that lack significant engagement with feminist perspectives, as well as to feminist discourses that fail to consider the significance of inservice education. The data reported here are drawn from a broader case study of Australian primary practitioners from 1975 who were interviewed about their enactment of gender-inclusive reform in the state of Victoria. This discussion takes as its focus the standpoint of 17 in-service educators in terms of their conceptualisation of gender inclusiveness. Three distinctive conceptions emerged in data analysis, which may be represented as three amalgams on a continuum according to a feminist perspective. Implications of this plurality of meaning for professional development are concluded.[2]