ABSTRACT
Current debates about the role of the educational system in relation to the formation of citizens focus on the failure in ‘partial’ or immature democracies (as some have called Western European nations) to ensure that all citizens are equal (Arnot, 1995). In the context of theories about ethnicity and citizenship, there is much concern about the ways in which minority ethnic groups are constructed as the ‘Other’, especially in relation to national and European citizenship (Gillborn, 1992; Coulby and Jones, 1995). In terms of gender relations the debate focuses on the contradictions between, on the one hand, the modernising of gender relations through cultural discourses and, on the other, the continued failure to improve women’s participation in the labour market and in economic and political decision making. Democratic structures within advanced industrial economies have only conceded limited political gains to women, most notably in relation to access to education and elite professions (Arnot, 1995).
