Hidden Curricula, Habit and Gender: An Approach Based in Pragmatism

<p> This paper reconsiders gender from the perspective of “habit,” one of the central concepts of pragmatism. It has been argued that the “hidden curriculum” as related to gender reproduces sexist practices, which in turn are reproduced by children in the classroom.</p><p> In response to these arguments, researchers taking various feminist approaches suggest changes in classroom interactions. For example, educational research based on liberal feminism has argued that girls' class participation should be on an equal level with boys', while educational research based on radical feminism has focused on micro-level classroom practices.</p><p> The introduction of the concept of habit discussed by pragmatism adds a further perspective to the conversation on the reproduction of gender in the classroom. Arguments about habit help us to understand changes in both structures and selves in dynamic relationships. Researching classroom structures and settings in which sexist practices are reproduced, and analyzing the participation of the children therein, a pragmatist approach can help us pay attention to habits constructed according to the existing gender order, as well as to the transformations of the structure produced by the transactions between habits and environment.</p><p> This paper first reviews the concept of the “hidden curriculum” and discusses the ways in which liberal feminism and radical feminism address the question of transformations in gender. Next it provides an overview of how pragmatism understands habit. Relying on the work of pragmatist feminist Shannon Sullivan, who discusses the relationship between gender and “habits,” the paper then reconsiders gender from the perspective of habits and introduces the perspective into the discussion of hidden curricula. Finally, it explores the question of overcoming sexism in light of the theory of habit. The paper suggests that neither the liberation from sexism nor the deconstruction of sexism addresses adequately the processes of transformation that necessarily accompany the reproduction of sexism. This can be better understood by analyzing the dynamic relationship between habits and structures. The pragmatist approach to habit suggests that it is the continuous exchange between the complex of habits and the structures that makes us who we are and opens up the possibility of transformation.</p>