Undressing policy: a critical analysis of North Carolina (USA) public school dress codes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Student dress codes are controversial school policy in US schools. As dress codes were initially established with the intent to eliminate the appearance of differences among students and mitigate gang violence in schools, legal research has paid extensive attention to the value and constitutionality of these policies. Education research, however, is limited. What research does exist has focused largely on the benefits of policy implementation, rather than the construction of dress codes or implicit biases found in the discourse around student dress. Using feminist critical policy analysis as our guiding frameworks for analysis, we analyzed 122 student dress codes in North Carolina public schools. Our content analysis revealed these policies place especial restrictions on girl students’ dress and reinforce traditional binary notions of gender identity. Our analysis also found race is an important factor in dress code language, and so we argue for further intersectional analysis of policy writing and implementation.