ABSTRACT
One of the most powerful global forces in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the value ascribed by Western European nations to the gendering of separate spheres in society. Men, as main breadwinners, were associated with a masculinised public/civic sphere and women were represented as symbolic of family and private life (Arnot and Dillabough, 1999). This concept of separate but complementary gender spheres was used to domesticate both colonised peoples and women. Significantly, it shaped the organisational structures and content of a wide variety of national educational systems. Such values, especially in the context of the British domestic and colonial educational policy, contradicted the validity of liberal democratic designs for modern school systems which emphasised individual autonomy and a broad and balanced curriculum for all. In many countries, gender differentiation within education became a key principle shaping the selection, distribution and evaluation of educational knowledge for young men and women.
