The (De)institutionalization of Gender in American Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Schools

Abstract

This narrative (auto)ethnographic inquiry draws data from the historical contexts of the American heteronormative/binary gendered school system, and a year engagement with a large suburban school district (K-12) in which he conducted interviews and classroom observations. This research theorizes/demonstrates how schools currently institutionalize gender with explicit and implicit “lessons,” and how this impacts children—the primary argument is that when schools “teach” or “socialize” students to perform (Butler, 1990) within the binary of masculinity and femininity (Richardson, 2012; Connell, 2005; Halberstam, 1998) it limit students’ from becoming well-rounded and reaching their fullest potential (e.g., Pascoe, 2007; Orenstein, 1994; Sadker & Sadker, 1994, Thorne, 1993). Pulling from bell hooks (2004) and conversations with Monroe Valley teachers, deinstitutionalization is imagined.

Author

• Scott Richardson, Millersville University of Pennsylvania