According to Jane Roland Martin, philosophical thinking in education for some time has focused on a limited range of questions and endorsed a deficient theory of curriculum. Martin has responded by widening the scope of thinking and recognizing the significance of gender and women's experience for education and schooling. Her ideas are innovative and forceful and make a strong case for a reassessment of contemporary mainstream educational thought.

The present book responds to Martin by addressing the issues she raises, with particular reference to issues in gender, curriculum, and schooling in need of urgent attention by theorists and practitioners alike. This is accomplished through analysis and response to three areas of Martin's thought: (1) her critique of conventional thinking in curriciulum in which she challenges traditional assumptions regarding knowledge and the goals of education, (2) her gender critique of educational thought and practice in which she examines the extent to which gender bias is reflected in influential educational theories of the past and present that underlie current practice, and (3) her alternative vision for schooling founded upon the acceptance of women's experience, caring, and a widened concept of cultural wealth and its implication for the school curriculum.