Decentring hegemonic gender theory: the implications for educational research

Abstract

The knowledge gathered and reviewed in the field of gender studies has been disseminated globally over the twentieth century but has paid relatively little regard to the contexts and meanings that have simultaneously emerged in other regions of the world. The emergence of global equality agendas in education associated with new frameworks and metrics for national growth provides a unique opportunity to bring together these diverse understandings of gender. This paper compares gender education theory in Western Europe and North America on one hand, and those from locations within Africa and South Asia on the other. We examine the major contributions of Southern gender theorists, two from Africa and two from South Asia, through four themes raised by these authors: the category of ‘third world woman’ and by implication the ‘girl child’; the othering of motherhood; the sexual/gendering of the body and the consequence of dislocation on academic positionalities. A new feminist research agenda is indicated that aims to reduce binaries, increase bi‐cultural workings, and readdress the role of positionality in the field of gender education research.