Education Policy Initiatives for Girls and Women: Are We Included in the Decent Society?

Abstract

Four years ago when I began as an Assistant Lecturer teaching a paper called Women and Education at Massey University, the concerns of an emerging “sociology of women’s education in Aotearoa” seemed more immediate and clearer than they do now. Now, as we realise the full magnitude of Labour’s betrayal which National has exacerbated in their quest for the “decent society”, the project for the sociology of women’s education seems more urgent, confused and contradictory than ever. Many of the earlier struggles have been overcome, while many continue. Now there is a need to understand and challenge current educational policy initiatives and their implications for girls and women, within the context of the massive challenges to the hegemony of social democratic liberalism. These challenges have meant that the disjunctions between theory, policy and practices have widened rather than contracted...