Gender sub-streaming in the school curriculum: the case of the Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC)’s Literature Component

Abstract

The school, it is granted, is the place where human minds are moulded positively. Yet, some scholars, more importantly Freire (1972) and Althusser (1993) challenge the apparent misrepresentation of the school, in particular, and the education system, in general. This paper draws on various concepts expounded by these scholars in its exploration of how gender is implicated in the composition of the school curriculum. The focus is on how representative the English set books, which constituted the literature component of the Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC) from 1980 to 2001 when Z.J.C. was examinable in Zimbabwe, are in terms of gender. The research was mainly based on textual analysis, guided by some discourse analysis techniques. The findings show that the government’s effort to introduce young readers to the world of literature through the ZJC books is biased against women. The composition of texts studied during the1980-2001 period exposes this bias. The subject matter, the characterisation and the language of these texts are implicated in the socialisation of boys and girls into specific gender roles and identities. It is important that school curricula be reconstituted along gender sensitive lines. While it might be a challenge to be wholly gender neutral, efforts can be made to eradicate some of the blatant biases against a certain gender. Hopefully, such changes will make the institution more gender inclusive.