A Theoretical Toolbox: Using Theories of Gender and Sexuality to Uncover New Histories of Education

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel argues that to understand educational history, scholars must engage with historical and theoretical scholarship on gender and sexuality. These papers span K-16 educational settings in four distinct places and periods: Philadelphia from 1907-1914; Tuscon from 1870-1890; Washington, D.C. from 1909-1940; and the Northeast from 1890-1920. This panel examines the importance of using theories of gender and sexuality to understand how these concepts have both created and challenged inequality in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions. This approach, we believe, offers historians of education a way to analyze the ways that gender and sexuality have impacted the educational opportunities and experiences of youth in a variety of contexts and time periods.

Sub Unit

• Division F - Historical Inquiry in Education

Cosponsors

• SIG-Queer Studies

• SIG-Research on Women and Education

Chair

• Karen L. Graves, Denison University

Papers

• Operationalizing the Alternative Black Curriculum in Social Studies: A Case Study of the Curriculum of the National Training School for Women and Girls - Alana D. Murray, University of Maryland

• “Instilling Good Principles in the New Generation”: Gendered Visions of American Citizenship in Turn-of-the-Century Tucson, Arizona - Amy Grey, The University of Arizona

• The “Gendered Geographies” of Philadelphia’s High Schools: Germantown High School, 1907-1914 - Erika Kitzmiller, Drexel University

• “Not Enough…for Really Intelligent Women”: Domestic Science and the Elite Women’s Colleges, 1890-1920 - Caroline Hasenyager, College of William and Mary

Discussant

• Karen L. Graves, Denison University