CHALLENGING GENDER BIAS THROUGH A TRANSFORMATIVE HIGH-SCHOOL SOCIAL-STUDIES CURRICULUM

This article reports on an effort to use a transformative curriculum i n 11th grade United States history classes to promote student examinat ion of bias in contemporary American society and to encourage student reflection on and reconsideration of personal views about gender. As p art of a unit on the struggle for equality in post World War II United States, students created and then discussed cartoon dialogues depicti ng two teenage women. An analysis of these cartoon dialogues illustrat es some of the problems teachers face when they assume that students a re making the intellectual connections they expect. It also underscore s the social positionality of student understanding. Suggestions for h elping students connect academic knowledge to their understanding of t he world in which they live are included.