Dressing Diversity: Politics of Difference and the Case of School Uniforms

Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society. Web site: http://ovpes.org/?page_id=51

Y

10

School Uniforms; School Policy; Humanism; Dress Codes; Social Justice; Cultural Differences; World Views; Beliefs; Ideology; Child Development; Elementary Secondary Education

0160-7561

Through an analysis of school uniform policies and theories of social justice, Samantha Deane argues that school uniforms and their foregoing policies assume that confronting strangers--an imperative of living in a democratic polity--is something that requires seeing sameness instead of recognizing difference. Imbuing schooling with a directive that says schools ought to be places where children learn to confront the humanity of others requires that we ask questions about how educational policies teach children to deal with human difference. Broadly speaking, uniform policies undergird the assumption that a child's capacity to confront difference is unimportant. To consider the ways in which school uniform policies unjustly teach children to disregard difference so that they can reasonably participate in public and school life, this paper engages in a conversation about social justice.

ERIC

2015

EJ1076463