Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics: The Selected Works of Ivor F. Goodson Book

For anyone studying the history of education, this book provides insight and relevance as to how gender is a vital element of study in such context. While the primary focus is centered on the development, growth, and alteration of the Home Economics program at Berkeley, the general information provides relevant, engaging, and deep consideration of how women were viewed in education. It is well researched and structured, bringing to light archival correspondence, speeches, and research to frame an involving and strong discussion.

If one feels that the study of the history of education is vital, as I do, this book will serve multiple purposes - providing an analysis of how then current events shaped education while also including elements of gender bias, social construction impeding access, and even salary inequality across fields and credentials. Even if one is not directly engaged in the study of the impact of gender or a specific program on education, the work readily is applicable as a reading of how historical, geographical, socioeconomic, and human factors influence academics and education throughout time. The book is important, engaging, and vital to understanding much of modern views of inquiry into the role of gender in program choice and the ilk.

As the book itself states when listing the seven conclusions one should draw, "...higher education scholars will have an incomplete analysis if they do not include gender as an important factor in studies of university history and the way in which a university functions, as well as in biographies of the university's leaders." The relevance of this claim is well supported by the book and provides an engaging social history that also tells a relevant story of one institution that largely mirrors the challenges faced by others. A recommended read in my view.