Blair, Maud, Holland, Janet and Sheldon, Sue (1995). Identity and Diversity: Gender and the Experience of Education. Reviewed by John R. Kellogg, Ohio University

Blair, Maud, Holland, Janet and Sheldon, Sue (1995). Identity and Diversity: Gender and the Experience of Education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters 279 pp. + xi $29.95 (Paper)        ISBN 1-85359-248-X $74.95 Reviewed by John R. Kellogg Ohio University             Educators currently struggle with the issues of diversity and difference. When making decisions regarding curricular offerings, textbooks, and instructional programming, educators need to be sensitive to and plan for the differences among students. Curiously, educators often view diversity as the combined effect of singular differences among students. In other words, educators frequently attend to one particular difference--race, gender, religion, or social class--that typifies and distinguishes among students. Rarely do discussions focus on the connectedness of a variety of differences and the effects of those interconnections on the development of children's identities.           The strength of Identity and Diversity: Gender and the Experience of Education is its offering of a diversity of readings. This collection brings to light the conflicts that arise when multiple differences are considered to influence the development of identity. The book, however, does not directly examine how the dynamics of diversity and identity relate to the field of education. As the editors explain in the introduction, the collection is part of a series put together for a course intended to "introduce the notion of diversity and difference in education" (p.vii). The essays assembled by the editors work well to accomplish the stated purpose of serving as an instructional tool.           The book includes essays organized in three sections. The first section consists of eight autobiographies, the second offers several theories related to gender and identity, and the third provides essays that discuss social identities and their formation (p.vii). The essays are varied and offer insight into how gender interacts with other types of diversity to influence the development of social identity. For example, one of the autobiographies examines the manner in which gender and race affected the development of the author's identity. The resulting examination of the intersections between domains of diversity broadens the reader's understanding and appreciation of gender and race and also his or her understanding of identity formation. In the end, the reader recognizes that each individual's development of identity involves the complex interplay among social relations based on gender, race, class, and other domains of difference.           The book opens with a series of autobiographies; and the initial essay, bel hooks' "Writing Autobiography," discusses the difficulties in authoring one's own story. The editors note in the introduction of the book that autobiography is a research method used in feminist scholarship (p. xi). Highlighting the inherent awkwardness of authoring an autobiography, hooks examines the strengths and weakness of this methodology. Authoring her autobiography was, hooks states, "a way for me to evoke the particular experience of growing up southern black in segregated communities. It was a way to recapture the richness of southern black culture" (p. 5). The telling of a person's life experience, particularly if doing so gives voice to those without one, is the function of the feminist autobiography. However, as hooks points out, an autobiographer may also leave important aspects of her experience out of the work. This essay offers a strong starting point, and it is followed by a variety of authors and their stories. Each story evokes a different social context, but all revolve around the core issues of gender, differences, and identity. In "Death of a Good Woman" Carolyn Steedman discusses growing up in London, England in the 1950's. The essay summarizes her book Landscape for a Good Woman, which recounts her experiences growing up with her mother. Describing her mother's conflict as a gender and class issue, Steedman claims that her account differs from those depicted in mainstream working-class autobiographies.           By this point the reader may be lulled into believing that this collection will include only narrative accounts of woman and their development of identity. However, several of the autobiographies are far from expected stories. Following Steedman, Fred Fever contributes "Who Cares? Memories of Childhood in Care." His account is of a man growing up as an orphan. His childhood included the experiences of being passed from one caretaker to another, sexually abused, and neglected. Fever's description of his school performance in relation to his life experiences is a telling account of how development of identity intersects with issues of race, gender, and social class. Fever's essay is followed by Uvanney Maylor's "Identity, Migration and Education," the story of a girl raised by a single, working-class father in Jamaica. Maylor tells of the difficulties she had in developing her identity as a young girl while her father struggled to raise a family. The story is rich ground for discussions of how gender and social class function to shape children's development.           The journey through autobiographies moves then to Scotland and Leslie Hill's description of her work as an educator in the 1960's. Hill describes the dynamics of the patriarchal system of education in Scotland and the effects of these dynamics on her career as a female educator. Mary Evans follows this account with a story highlighting the ways the English school system in the 1950's served to reproduce the social structure. She explores the effect that this social reproduction had on middle-class women in particular. Like several others in this collection, this essay opens for discussion the complicated interplay of gender, class, and identity.           The next autobiography, by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, adds the element of race to the mix. Her story takes place in New Zealand during the government's policy of "pepper potting." She explains that "pepper potting was the government policy of mixed racial housing. Having Maori and Paheha live side by side, with goodwill and purpose, as they had so diligently fought side by side in World War II" (p.74). Her story depicts the struggle of a woman in school trying to maintain her cultural identity in a time when racial identity was being suppressed in the name of harmonious race relations.           The final contribution to this section is Margaret Wetherell and Christine Griffin's, "Feminist Psychology and the Study of Men and Masculinity: Assumptions and Perspectives." This essay excerpts transcripts of interviews with male researchers who study men and masculinity. The focus is on what led these individuals to this area of study and the issues the growing field of men's studies raises for feminist theory. For Part One, the book's editors have selected powerful autobiographies that serve to broaden the reader's horizons. Part Two includes seven essays that discuss theories addressing issues of gender and differences. The first, Judy Lown's, "Feminist Perspectives," is a wonderful historical summary of the development of "second wave feminism." The account discusses the early roots of feminism as a woman's rights movement by providing summaries of the various feminist theories including, Socialist/Marxist, psychoanalytical, lesbian separatist, radical, revolutionary, black, and liberal feminist theories. It offers a comprehensive review of the various "feminisms" and their differences. Then the work moves into a consideration of the relationship between post-modernism and feminist theory. This opening piece provides the novice reader of feminist theory with the theoretical background to link the autobiographies in Part One with the more arcane discussions in Part Two.           In "Feminist Theories of the State: To Be or Not To Be?" Jane Kenway continues the examination of feminist theory and its relation to post-modernist and post-structuralist thought. Kenway discusses the incompatibilities between feminism and post-modernism. In her conclusion she writes: Post-structuralist and, more broadly, post- modernist feminism have provided feminist theories of state, and feminist theory more generally, with some inescapable challenges. And the practical necessity for feminism to act in and on the state has set post- modernism and post-structuralism a demanding political and theoretical task. The extent to which feminists are able to work through and beyond the tensions between modernist and post-modernist feminism towards feminists theories of the state which accommodate and transcend the best of both worlds will determine whether, in the future, feminist state theory is "to be or not to be." (p.140)           With Kenway's discussion in mind the reader moves to "Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory," by Jane Flax. In contrast to Kenway, Flax examines ways that feminist and post-modernist theory can be made compatible. Her examination of power and gender explores women's varied stances with regard to power: We should avoid seeing woman/ourselves as totally innocent, passive beings. Such a view prevents us from seeing the areas of life in which women have had an effect, in which we are less determined by the will of other(s), and in which some of us have and do exert power over others. (p.156) In her conclusion Flax calls for feminists to accept the range of differences in women's experiences and to resist the temptation to impose order on such experiences by classifying them. Her position is that feminist theory needs to break from the notion that there is a unifying and global female experience. Moreover, she argues that power is not merely used to control women, but that women wield power over others as well.           These first three pieces are the strongest of the theoretical discussions presented in Part Two of the book. The next three essays examine more specific theories of racism, masculinity, and homosexuality, relating them to the major theme of the book. Although interesting, these chapters have less pedagogical value than the earlier essays. They concern specific issues about identity formation as viewed from rather narrow theoretical vantages.           Razia Aziz examines black women's lack of voice in framing feminist theory. She maintains that feminist theory has been developed with a white perspective that has failed to incorporate and comprehend the black experience. The essay argues that black women have suffered oppression because of their gender as well as their race and that this particular experience of oppression ought to inform feminist theory. Jeff Hearn and David Morgan follow with a feminist discussion of men and masculinity. According to the authors, "Just as feminist scholarship has demonstrated that 'woman,' 'women,' and 'femininity' are socially and historically constructed, and thus problematic, so too has it demonstrated the problematic nature of 'man,' 'men,' and 'masculinity'" (p.173). Hearn and Morgan discuss the issues and questions raised for feminists by the development of this growing field of study.           Mercer and Julien then present, "True Confessions: A Discourse on Images of Black Male Sexuality," which considers the limited range of representations of black men in the gay movement. According to the authors, the typical stereotypes of black heterosexual males are replicated in the gay community. The authors examine the effect such representations have on the formation of the social identities of gay black men. In the final essay of Part Two, Carol Gilligan theorizes that gender differences are established during critical periods of development. She argues that masculine behavior is developed during early childhood whereas feminine behavior is a product of adolescence. Gilligan's theory on masculine and feminine behavior allows the reader to view the issue of gender and differences from the lens of psychological development. Even though somewhat narrow in scope, this piece serves as a strong finish to the theoretical section of the book.           The last section, "Marginal Identities," offers five essays discussing the construction of identity among groups of people who have recently gained voice. Margaret Lloyd provides the first essay in which she discusses feminist theory in relation to her own experiences as a woman with disabilities. She explains that feminist theory was developed by 'able' people and that men have dominated the 'disability' movement, circumstances that have rendered disabled women invisible in both movements. Lloyd's piece is followed by an examination of how culture has shaped lesbian identity. Martha Vicinus's "The Historical Roots of the Modern Lesbian Identity" summarizes the development of lesbian identity from an historical perspective. Vinicus tracks the cultural images of lesbians during various points in history. The next essay also focuses on homosexuality and its intersection with other categories of difference. Telling the story of black, gay students and their construction of identity, "(In) Visibility: 'Race', Sexuality and Masculinity in the School Context" explores issues of racism, sexuality, and gender. As some of the previous works have also done, this essay illustrates how a particular combination of differences, in this case blackness, maleness, and homosexuality, can complexly affect social location, and, hence, the construction of identity.           The next selection, "Pleasure, Pressure and Power: Some Contradictions of Gendered Sexuality," moves to a discussion of heterosexuality. The essay discusses how women in today's society can "experience safer and more positive sexual relations" and at the same time not become "unfeminine" (p. 260). Whereas this essay seems to embrace an old-fashioned view of women, it serves to remind the reader that difference in social location, and hence in stance, does not always signify a radical departure from the mainstream. Difference, according to this view, encompasses multiple, not just excluded, voices. The final selection also constitutes a look backward--in this case to a decidedly mainstream feminist account of gender, differences, and the construction of identity. In "Education and the Muslim Girl," Saeeda Khanum examines the relationship between gender and identity within the school context by discussing the ways that gender-segregated Muslim schools serve to reproduce the religious and cultural identities of girls. In part this social reproduction is accomplished by offering girls a diluted version of the academic experience--a practice still evident in some gender-integrated, secular, and cosmopolitan schools in the contemporary United States.           Taken together, the essays in this volume offer readers an opportunity to broaden their understanding of issues of gender, diversity, and the construction of identity. The juxtaposition of personal accounts and theory invites the reader to construct flexible linkages between real-life stories and theoretical models. The work goes beyond the expected discussions of gender and differences to offer a more complex account of the ways in which gender and differences (race, social class, sexual orientation) abet and constrain the formation of identity. For public school educators in an American society that is increasingly more diverse, reading this book will broaden appreciation of diversity and its effects on children's development. Typically educators discuss differences among students in singular terms: they simply identify a particular difference in a particular student. Educators, however, need to view diversity in the more complex terms presented by the contributors to Identity and Diversity: Gender and the Experience of Education. The essays in this book illustrate the ways in which differences among individuals are multiple, interconnected, and formative. Moreover, the theoretical models of diversity presented in this book are more sophisticated than those typically encountered by educators. The combination of more complex accounts of identity and more powerful intellectual tools for viewing diversity has the potential to empower educators, informing their efforts to create curriculum and develop programs that address the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. About the Reviewer John R. Kellogg John R. Kellogg is currently a student in the Ohio University Ed.D program in Educational Administration. He is also a principal of a high school with an enrollment of very diverse 2,100 students. His current areas of interest in education relate to the superintendency, rural schools, student achievement and curriculum and instruction. This book review was completed as a class project for "Cultural and Contextual Foundations of Leadership." The book was selected because of an interest in studying the multi-faceted aspects of gender, differences and the construction of identity as they relate to children in school.