Teacher Ideology and Sex Roles in Curriculum Texts

This paper explores the relationship between teachers' general beliefs about sexism in society with their views on sexism in curriculum materials. In so doing, it seeks to elaborate on the nature of teachers' ideological perceptions of sexism, sex roles and feminism. By analysing sex stereotyping in the school texts of one secondary school for the subjects English, mathematics and French, the research reported in the paper substantiates much of the previous research in this area which has found school texts to be male dominated. In conclusion, the paper suggests that, in certain cases, teacher ideology could be a considerable obstacle to the development of anti-sexist pedagogies because those teachers who support traditional sex roles tend to resist or devalue anti-sexist initiatives in education.