RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
5.9 Limited Sense of Gender Justice
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official grade 12 history curriculum: “In understanding our world today and the legacies that shaped our present, the broad themes of power alignments, human rights, issues of civil society and globalization” (DoE, 2003, p.30). In addition what is expected is an acute understanding of how issues of race, gender and class impacted and continue to impact on South African society (DoE, 2003). How can these boys have this understanding when their institution has remained relatively unaffected by these issues and their traditional notions of masculinity reflect traditionally hegemonic ideals in conflict with the intention of N.C.S (DoE, 2003)? The boys’ relative under performance is not the boys’ fault but lies in the transformative gender intentions of official history curricula and that clashes with those of unofficial history as well as the institution as a masculine regulating force. The image in the mirror created by these conflicting forces is a blurred one for these boys.
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man and what it meant to be a woman. At times this conflict was caused by what they had brought into the history classroom with their preconceived ideas obtained through unofficial history. This conflict was made all the greater when they were confronted by what they come to learn about men and women through official school history. At other times what they had learnt in the history classroom reaffirmed some of their traditional and conservative views of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman (Unterhalter, 2000; Chipondo, 2011). Many of these boys believed that men are justified in being dominant because they are physically stronger. Men and women are not equal according to Ryan, for example, because physical strength determines dominance and society is still patriarchal. According to some of these boys men and women play separate and unequal roles in society. This belief is born out of the lessons learnt through official school history such as in prehistoric times men were the hunters and women the gatherers. However, it is more accurate to acknowledge the lessons learnt through unofficial history such as family dynamics and the school as a genderised institution for this belief. For some of these history boys men dominate women because women are the weaker sex. Men are physically stronger and therefore perform more physically strenuous tasks which justify their dominance over women. This is most certainly not communicated in the official school history curriculum so the boys would have learnt this from other sources – unofficial history lessons taught through family dynamics as well as institutionalized masculinity.
Although these history boys were able to describe various roles played by individual women in history they did not see these roles as being significant although they equally admitted that they had not studied women’s roles in history in enough detail. This was due to the fact that women’s roles are not nearly emphasized in the official school history curriculum to the same extent as the roles of powerful men. When pressed to mention by name the women whom they had studied in history these boys mentioned women who by and large were associated with the fight for human rights: Rosa Parks, Helen Suzman, Helen Zille, Amy Biehl and Hillary Clinton. Again most of these historical figures were white although there was a mix of international and South African figures most of whom could be found in the official school history curriculum. There was also a
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mix of historical and more contemporary political figures which leads one to believe that these boys were drawing on their contemporary South African and world general knowledge rather than their historical knowledge. But closer to the truth is the fact that these boys, were not interested in the history of the roles played by women. If significant history is determined to be the history that interests them and is relevant to them, then it can be deduced that because of their gender they do not see the role played by people of the opposite gender as being significant.
For the history boys protest seemed to be associated with women alone. It was not something that men were associated with as protest on the whole does not involve physical strength or even raw courage although others might contest this. However, when men did protest they were seen to be more effective than women largely because they came across as more threatening. Women were unable to do it alone. Women therefore, according to these history boys, are powerless without men. This is not what the official history curriculum seeks to communicate. It seeks to achieve the opposite – a transformed society characterized by gender equality (DoE, 2003). It can therefore be concluded that the belief that women are powerless without men must have been communicated to the boys through unofficial history sources such as family relationships and the genderised institution in which these history boys find themselves.
Once again, according to these history boys, men are powerful because they are physically stronger. White men in particular possessed individual skills and ability that enabled them to change history. Women, like black men, were unable to do anything significant on their own – they needed the support of a lot of people to achieve their aims. These beliefs were formed to a limited extent by the official school history curriculum yet fed into the history boys’ preconceived hegemonic notions of what it meant to be a man – to be able to dominate others. This is despite of, or because of, the content of the N.C.S – History which was selected in order to understand our world today. By the end of grade 12 it is hoped that a learner will be able to “critically investigate how issues such as gender, race and class impacted and continue to impact on sources used in history” (DoE, 2003, p.45). For these history boys the aim of
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identifying gender discrimination in order to abolish it from contemporary society has not been achieved.
5.10 Conclusion - Why does masculinity influence boys’ understanding of