Abstract
This article is a reflection on some general propositions concerning the process of schooling and on the nature and scope of the movement in Australia for non-sexist education. The first section of the article considers the arguments about schooling as reproducer of the social and cultural form. Here it is argued that, since schooling does not simply reproduce but is a conscious interruption in the transmission of cultural identity, there is some potential for reformist intervention. It is shown also that school does not automatically reflect or respect the biological attributes of pupils and that the treatment of girls has involved values which go beyond an acknowledgment of their attributes. Finally it is suggested that the non-monolithic nature of the institution of public education provides both possibilities for action and means of undercutting these, and a variety of illustrations is given. In the second section of the article, three broad lines of approach within the area of non-sexist education are outlined. Here the article attempts to analyse the relation to the existing and future culture assumed by these initiatives and to show some of the different ways they approach the institutional operations of schooling.