Justice and cultural conflict: Racism,sexism, and instructional materials

Conclusions This paper has sought to raise questions about the limits we have imposed on ourselves as we discuss the relationship between racism, sexism, and instructional materials. In addition to attempting to outline the historical evolution of concerns about the content of curricular materials, and the manner in which this issue is currently being debated, I have tried to demonstrate that the ground rules and definitions we have accepted have limited our ability to apprehend the real complexity of the issue (e.g., a definition of censorship which omits the notion of covert censorship). Perhaps the most important belief which I have sought to question is that the content of literary and curricular materials can be discussed in isolation from the ideologies which they consciously or unconsciously manifest. There is a relationship between these ideologies and the wider distribution of power and resources in society. To discuss challenges to racially or sexually biased instructional materials exclusively in terms of a perceived threat to intellectual freedom and in absence of a discussion of the role such materials play in the continuation and re-creation of racial and sexual discrimination in society is, as has been stated, to ignore matters which demand consideration. It is my conviction that the debate surrounding this question has, for too long, been abstracted from the concrete historical concerns of those directly involved, and has ignored the appeals to justice and fairness which adhere to the claims of those demanding redress of past grievances.Furthermore, the debate has been too often guided by assumptions (e.g., the existence of schools as an open and free marketplace for the exchange of all ideas) which simply cannot withstand close scrutiny. It is clear to me that the perspectives offered by the sociology of school knowledge offer the means to make possible a fuller disclosure of the serious issues raised by this controversy.