EDUC90929 Chap.10 Gendered Discourses in Education
Gendered Discourses in Education
Week 5 concerns gender and sexuality, and its learning outcomes require students to distinguish gender, sexuality and sex. The lecture names Michel Foucault (1971), reached through Bronwyn Davies (2000), for its discourse account. It attributes the key terms—discourse, discursive practices, subject, subject position and production of self—to Judith Butler (1990; 1997) and Davies (2000). Policy does not merely describe pre-existing subjects; categories, truth claims and repeated institutional practice can make certain identities and conduct intelligible, normal or problematic.
A discourse is not one opinion. It is a historically, politically and culturally shaped narrative that acquires force through institutions, knowledge and repeated practice. A subject position is a socially available identity carrying expectations and consequences. People can inhabit, negotiate or contest positions, so the theory should not be written deterministically. A strong analysis identifies the recurring narrative, institutional authority, enacted practice, position, recognition or sanction, and counter-discourse that makes change possible.
Davies is assigned for the production of the gendered subject. The specified pp. 44–45 extract is pointed to but not present in readable text and is not reconstructed here. The lecture does contain a p. 89 quotation, including the short line that “who one is is always an open question with a shifting answer”. Use the current Canvas reading for Davies's full argument and preserve the difference between the source, lecture paraphrase and your analysis.
What this chapter covers
- 01Distinguishing gender, sexuality and sex
- 02Foucauldian discourse, knowledge and power
- 03Subject positions and the production of normality
- 04Policy categories, silences and material effects
- 05A source-bounded signpost to the assigned Davies reading
Reading a policy category as productive
- 2Identify the categories, binaries and claims treated as natural.
- 2Map the subject positions made available and those rendered difficult or silent.
- 2Trace the institutional practices and material effects linked to the discourse.
- 2Identify counter-discourses and policy changes without assuming language alone determines experience.
Key terms
- Discourse
- A system of meaning and practice that shapes what can be known, said and treated as normal or true.
- Subject position
- A socially available way of being understood and acting within a discourse.
- Gender
- A social and cultural field of identities, roles, relations and meanings that should not be collapsed into sex or sexuality.
- Sexuality
- A domain of desire, identity, relationship and social meaning that is analytically distinct from gender and sex.
- Normalisation
- Processes through which particular identities, conduct or outcomes become standards against which others are judged.
Gendered Discourses in Education FAQ
Are gender, sexuality and sex interchangeable?
No. Week 5 expressly requires students to distinguish them and analyse the relationships without collapsing one into another.
Does discourse analysis ignore material effects?
It should not. A strong analysis connects categories and truth claims to institutional rules, resources, practices and lived consequences.
Why is the Davies argument not summarised in depth here?
The assigned pp. 44–45 are referenced but their text is not reproduced in the subject materials available here. Use the reading on Canvas for Davies's own formulation. The short p. 89 excerpt included in the lecture can be used with attribution, but it does not substitute for the assigned pages.
Who grounds the Week 5 key terms?
The lecture reaches Foucault (1971) through Davies (2000) and attributes its key vocabulary to Butler (1990; 1997) and Davies (2000). Naming the lineage is only the start. Use discourse for the repeated institutional narrative, discursive practice for its enactment, subject position for an available identity and production of self for the open process through which identities are formed and revised.
Does social construction mean gender is imaginary?
No. It concerns how meanings, categories and realities are historically and institutionally produced. Those constructions have material consequences and constrain which positions are recognised, while competing discourse and human action make change possible. Avoid claiming that one narrative controls every person. Show the policy category, practice, recognition or sanction and the evidence of how differently positioned people negotiate it.
Assessment move
Annotate a policy text in five colours: recurring categories, claims of truth, institutional authorities, discursive practices and subject positions with consequences. Then note silences, counter-discourses and possible redesign. Keep gender, sexuality and sex analytically distinct. Build the inference from actual wording to repeated institutional practice rather than calling every statement a discourse. Use Foucault, Butler and Davies by name and assign each concept a job. Read the assigned Davies pp. 44–45 directly because they are not reproduced in the subject materials available here; use the p. 89 lecture excerpt only within its supported boundary. In a final paragraph, state what the lens reveals, which normative criterion supports your judgement and what experience or implementation evidence is still needed.
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