Sex-Role Culture and Educational Practice

Abstract

How can schools as they currently exist serve the needs of the sexes during an era of changing sex-role sensibility? Addressing this question, the authors propose that the construct of sex role is better conceptualized in cultural than in psychosocial terms. This allows for a more coherent analysis of the interactions of three cultural phenomena: formal schooling, femininity, and masculinity. The concept of sex-role culture is rotated through three models of cultural interaction:Genetic Differences, Cultural Differences, and Biculturalism. Each model contributes to an understanding of the systemic relationship between sex-role culture and educational practice. The authors argue first, that from an educational perspective, sex-linked genetic differences are largely irrelevant, second, that sex-linked cultural differences are real, but unstable and situational, and finally, that bicultural blendings are beneficial and increasingly prevalent. The school's task is to provide children with equal access to traditionally sex-typed educational and cultural resources. Increasing biculturalism can occur only through intervention into the hidden curriculum which includes teacher pupil-role expectations,teacher modeling and the distribution of classroom space and materials.