In this essay, the author reviews "Education Reform in New York City: Ambitious Change in the Nation's Most Complex School System," by Jennifer A. O'Day, Catherine S. Bitter, and Louis Gomez. The book under review explores a larger set of issues, and some time has passed. But many of the issues studied remain relevant and the consistent…

Gender bias in textbooks (GBIT) is a low-profile education issue, given the 72,000,000 children who still have no access to schooling, but this article argues that GBIT is: (1) an important, (2) near-universal, (3) remarkably uniform, (4) quite persistent but (5) virtually invisible obstacle on the road to gender equality in education--an obstacle…

An examination of characters, narrative content, and context of two Canadian primary level reading series reveals a fictional world populated almost exclusively by white, nuclear families all living the same kind of life, with values of upwardly mobile, achievement-oriented individualists. (MJB)

Sex-role stereotyping in Canadian textbooks is discussed and curriculum changes as a solution to the problem are suggested. (JMF)

Students are exposed to a curriculum that primes both males and females for a sexist society. Picture books are the first reading materials to which young children are exposed. An analysis of award winning children's books reveals negative associations about being female. Sex role stereotyping is already operative at the prereading and early…

Background information about gender inequity is provided, and the assertion is made that educators must recognize that many of the problems females encounter are begun and perpetuated in the schools. Visual literacy is part of the change that schools must make in order to make greater strides toward gender equity. Two connections between visual…

Group activities are outlined for a course for preservice and inservice teachers who wish to improve their skills in eliminating sex bias from their classroom and teaching practices. Program materials were developed around a three-phase training model. The first phase focused on increasing awareness of the pervasiveness of stereotyping in society.…

Parents who have come to expect fairness in the workplace are finding gender stereotypes and bias in classrooms and on playgrounds of their children's schools. This book offers advice to parents on how to identify gender bias in a child's environment and supplies definitions of key terms, checklists of ideas, and action steps to take to help…

This concept paper provides a framework for the development of a nonsexist curricular unit in teacher education courses. The immediate goal is the elimination of the narrowness of the traditional male-dominated curriculum. To assure that learning regarding sexism and sex-role stereotyping is applied in the classroom, a teacher education curriculum…

A guide to help students understand the changes in traditional male and female roles occurring in society summarizes traditional behavior patterns and current changes, followed by an example of a student discussion and a class exercise. Topics include (1) who pays on a date, (2) names used to identify people, (3) women serving in the military, (4)…

This handbook is intended as a guide to planning and implementing a home economics curriculum free from sex-role stereotyping that prepares male and female students to cope with their changing roles in society. Section 1, Overcoming Sex Stereotyping, provides a checklist (for assessing classroom activities) and necessary definitions. Teaching for…