ABSTRACT
The analysis of the ideological messages conveyed by the school through its handling of option choice suggested that a process of selection was in operation. Although some parents felt the school played an unhelpful role in channelling pupils in particular directions, there was no evidence of pupils and parents challenging this position. The aim of this chapter is to consider pupils’ accounts of why they made conventional subject choices, and the cultural meanings they attached to specific school subjects. The question which particularly concerned me was whether the tendency to make sex-stereotyped choices did in fact signal an uncritical acceptance of gender divisions in the wider society. In attempting to answer these questions, I draw on both quantitative and qualitative data.
