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Public schools in early America were designed to ensure the reproduction of Eurocentric social values. It could be argued that little has changed. Gender Lessons takes an in-depth look at how schools institutionalize genderâhow kids are taught the rules and expectations of performing masculinity and femininity. This work provides extensive examples of how elementary, middle, and high schools: sextype; defend and preserve patriarchy; weave gendered expectations in all things school related; promote inequity; and limit their studentsâ potential by explicitly and implicitly teaching that they must fit into only one of two boxesâ¦âgirlâ or âboy.â Richardson argues that schoolsâa powerful and wide reaching publicly funded mechanismâshould be engaged in social (re)imagination that disbands the antiquated girl/boy and feminine/masculine binary so that kids might have a chance at being themselves. This book is sure to provoke conversation in courses and professional communities interested in education, gender studies, social work, sociology, counseling and guidance.
Cover art: Emily A. Pellini
Cover art: Emily A. Pellini
Scott Richardson, Ph.D. is a curriculum theorist and researcher in the areas of gender, sexuality and democratic, alternative, and international education. He is the author of eleMENtary School: (Hyper)Masculinity in a Feminized Context (Sense Publishers).
"In the 1970s, feminists fought to reform sexist school curricula and challenged taken-for-granted tracking of boys and girls. Forty years later, drawing from personal experiences and insightful research in schools, Scott Richardson shows us that the job is far from finished. Informal interactions and stubborn sexist beliefs about gender difference still press girls and boys in primary, middle and high schools into differentâand highly constrainingâgender boxes. Anyone who cares about taking the next steps toward gender equality in schools will find in Gender Lessons a useful and hopeful map to a better future for our kids." â Michael A. Messner, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, University of California, Berkeley and author of Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women
"This book is unique in that it includes data from elementary, middle, and high schools from both studentsâ and teachersâ perspectives. These examples are familiar to anyone working in K-12 schools, but his analysis offers a new lens for many that can expose the frustrating and often heartbreaking nature of these taken-for-granted cultural norms." â Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, California Polytechnic State University and author of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools
"Dr. Richardson has done an excellent job providing an accessible and scholarly analysis of the ways in which gender is taught and reproduced in school settings. His style of combining personal narratives with data from his teamâs detailed observations in schools give readers an engaging entry point to think carefully about what he calls sextyping. He provides many examples that describe and problematize everyday practices in average K-12 schools and classrooms. These examples are familiar to anyone working in K-12 schools, but his analysis offers a new lens for many that can expose the frustrating and often heartbreaking nature of these taken-for-granted cultural norms. This book is unique in that it includes data from elementary, middle, and high schools from both studentsâ and teachersâ perspectives. His writing is provocative, engaging, and contributes to an important body of research that can help parents, educators, and policy makers think differently about what effective and inclusive schools look like." â Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, California Polytechnic State University and author of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools
"Read how kids and their teachers conspire to create the illusion that gender is uniform. In âpledging the patriarchyâ even the victors are victimized by the âsextypingâ schools accommodate and sometimes espouse. Read about teachers who sometimes teach gender lessons to their students a little too âup close and personal.â No muckraker, Richardson reports what he learned from his resounding research, not always telling us what weâre supposed to learn but allowing the facts themselves to teach. But if you havenât learned your lesson by chapter 6, youâll grasp it then. (Ah, the French, once again). Even if Richardson didnât have kidsâhe has two, Mali and Mariaâyou know heâd make a great Dad, because he is a great teacher: âMy hope is that we might fully recognize children as complex individualsâthat we go beyond any biological assignment, and resist the pressure to stereotype (sextype) how boys and girls are âsupposed to actâ.â Scott Richardson understands. Read for yourself." â William F. Pinar, Ph.D., Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
"This book is unique in that it includes data from elementary, middle, and high schools from both studentsâ and teachersâ perspectives. These examples are familiar to anyone working in K-12 schools, but his analysis offers a new lens for many that can expose the frustrating and often heartbreaking nature of these taken-for-granted cultural norms." â Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, California Polytechnic State University and author of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools
"Dr. Richardson has done an excellent job providing an accessible and scholarly analysis of the ways in which gender is taught and reproduced in school settings. His style of combining personal narratives with data from his teamâs detailed observations in schools give readers an engaging entry point to think carefully about what he calls sextyping. He provides many examples that describe and problematize everyday practices in average K-12 schools and classrooms. These examples are familiar to anyone working in K-12 schools, but his analysis offers a new lens for many that can expose the frustrating and often heartbreaking nature of these taken-for-granted cultural norms. This book is unique in that it includes data from elementary, middle, and high schools from both studentsâ and teachersâ perspectives. His writing is provocative, engaging, and contributes to an important body of research that can help parents, educators, and policy makers think differently about what effective and inclusive schools look like." â Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, California Polytechnic State University and author of Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools
"Read how kids and their teachers conspire to create the illusion that gender is uniform. In âpledging the patriarchyâ even the victors are victimized by the âsextypingâ schools accommodate and sometimes espouse. Read about teachers who sometimes teach gender lessons to their students a little too âup close and personal.â No muckraker, Richardson reports what he learned from his resounding research, not always telling us what weâre supposed to learn but allowing the facts themselves to teach. But if you havenât learned your lesson by chapter 6, youâll grasp it then. (Ah, the French, once again). Even if Richardson didnât have kidsâhe has two, Mali and Mariaâyou know heâd make a great Dad, because he is a great teacher: âMy hope is that we might fully recognize children as complex individualsâthat we go beyond any biological assignment, and resist the pressure to stereotype (sextype) how boys and girls are âsupposed to actâ.â Scott Richardson understands. Read for yourself." â William F. Pinar, Ph.D., Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Educational Researchers and their students
