A Tale Full of Sound and Fury--Signifying What? Feminism and Curriculum Policy in Australia.

The last 2 decades of curriculum policy in Australia are reviewed in this paper, with a focus on reforms concerned with females and schooling. Two general areas are examined: (1) the theoretical relationship between state power and feminist concerns about schooling; and (2) the progressive direction for schooling. The first section compares two policy frameworks of the mid-1970s and late 1980s, and the second part examines ways in which feminist demands in education are being integrated within Australian state policy. Three themes concerning the state and feminist action are discussed. First, state policy in liberal-democratic societies will continue to modify challenges to power, due to the inherently exclusive nature of conflicting discourse. Second, the state has used feminist discourse to increase funding of engineering, science, and technology. The field of gender and education is viewed by the government as a problem of women of nontraditional careers. Third, the commitment to equal education has been used to increase centralization of the school system, leading to more control, regulation, and surveillance. Conclusions are that a commitment to different forms of knowledge is in itself a universalizing framework and that vigorous critical engagement with equal education opportunity policies continues to be important. (54 references) (LMI)