Consultation or legitimation? Race and gender politics and the making of the national curriculum

Abstract

This article traces the ways in which equality debates, particularly those concerned with race and gender, have entered into the framing of the National Curriculum and its consultation processes. It analyses the approach taken by the National Curriculum Council and subject working groups to issues of gender and race in education. The conclusion is reached that the processes of consultation have been used by the Conserva tive Government, primarily, as a means of legitimation and control. Equal opportitnities has had little effect on the construction of the curriculum, since it has been defined as a problem of implementation. The responsibil ity for promoting social justice has again been transferred from central government to teachers as agents of reform, despite attacks on teacher autonomy. The effect of such processes of policy formation has been to reinforce the ideology of the curriculum's neutrality.