Feminist Theorisations of Identity and Difference‐‐a case‐study related to gender education policy

The intention in this paper is to explore notions of identity and difference in relation to gender and ethnic minority status within the context of Australian schooling. This is discussed through an examination of education policies related to gender. It is argued that over a 20‐year period, these policies have reflected shifts in feminist understandings of processes of identification. Initially, such policies were founded on an understanding of gender which was essentialised and in doing so consolidated discourses that denied the subjectivity of ethnic minority women and girls and reinforced dichotomies related to minority and majority ethnic status. Subsequent policies, while adopting a more deconstructive view of femininity and masculinity and indicating the possibility of biculturalism, none the less failed to address the ways in which gender and cultural identifications articulate. The paper explores the need for gender education policies to incorporate feminist theorisations of identity as unessentialised and shifting in response to contextual factors, one of which is schooling.