Hegemony and Education - Assignment Example

Male norms stress values such as autonomy, certain forms of aggression, adventure, courage, toughness of both mind and body etc. Hegemony involves persuasion of the greater part of the population the organization of social institutions and the media in ways that appear “natural”. Hegemonic masculinity in education involves the application of certain strategies for the subordination of women (Gibbs, 2008). Most universities promote an ideology that fosters the outlook of white middle class males.

Through the media, sports in universities have helped uphold a masculine hegemonic order in society (Kian, 2007). In comparison to women’s sports, men’s sports and male athletes are given more coverage. This gives a clear depiction of how masculinity is cherished more than femininity. The education system has therefore institutionalized gender with the aim of constituting people as two significantly different categories, male and female so as to organize social relations of inequality on the basis of this difference (Gibb, 2008).

The gender system in universities just like race becomes constructed as a distinct organizing principle of social relations to determine how resources are distributed. Thus, cultural beliefs about gender are nothing more than stereotypes. However, the significance of such stereotypes is more significant than we may want to think. For instance, the sex composition of a student-teacher interaction is certain to bring to mind gender beliefs that will determine how students evaluate each others performance and how to enact their individual roles.

Biological factors such as high levels of testosterone in men and different genetic make up are thought to affect cognitive abilities of men and women differently. Such biological factors are held to be the cause of difference in educational performance between male and females. Cultural beliefs that male students are supposed to exhibit an interest in traditional masculine subjects i.e. physics and past times such as rugby, football, athletics etc. constitute strategies for the construction of hegemonic masculinity in education.

Studies have revealed that women outperform men in schools that adopt learning and assessment procedures that are better suited for females than to males. This is based on the difference in behaviors, learning styles and attitudes of male and females thereby requiring implementation of different school and teaching practices in order to succeed. Feminized schools lack adequate number of male teachers to guide boys. Such schools exhibit prejudice towards feminism in curriculum materials, reject competition and luck toughness in discipline.

However, hegemonic masculinity may foster highly disruptive, inattentive, and aggressive behavior among males inside and outside the classroom leading to poor educational achievement (Gibb, 2008). Ethical issues arise from hegemonic power processes which occur as subroutines that eventually regulate daily interactions and work flows in organizations, without any open opposition. The implicit nature of hegemonic processes leads to gradual acceptance of organizational practices some of which may be against the general good of the society.

The concealed nature of hegemonic processes condition employees to act according to the rules and social values of everyday life. The employees act upon