The gender inclusiveness of a women's history curriculum in secondary education

Abstract

Synopsis---This article focuses on the meaning of a way of teaching history for girls and boys in secondary education in the Netherlands. It shows how girls and boys experienced a female-friendly learning method for two divergent types of subject matter: women's history and traditional history. The research took place in the context of the introduction of women's history as a compulsory examination subject in all secondary schools in the Netherlands. The article starts with an elaboration of the (theoretical) background of a female-friendly teaching method and a description of the research project. With help of the learner report methodology we then investigate the experiences of girls and boys with a female-friendly teaching method in secondary school curricula for traditional and women's history. Our research yielded two results. First, girls as well as boys preferred a female-friendly way of teaching to a more traditional one. In the second place, students' evaluations of a female-friendly teaching method and the subject women's history revealed an unexpected link: Women's history taught in a female-friendly way was not recognized as a body of knowledge. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd