Stories for Sexual Difference

Commonality AND difference? Attempts to escape from theoretical dualisms in emancipatory research in education

“…People are positioned in discourse, but Mills maintains that this positioning is conducted by other human beings (in their deployment of discourse) rather than by discourses themselves (see Cealey Harrison & Hood-Williams, 2001). The suggestion that people can actually choose the discourses which they draw on in order to deliberately position others runs counter to poststructuralist positions (see Jones, 1997;Hood-Williams, 1998). Jones (1997) has argued that the assumption that we can choose which discourses to draw on is based on a humanist conception of the self.…”

“…Some writers have attempted to circumvent this problem by re-inserting value, weighing different discourses as 'dominant', 'hegemonic' and so forth. Yet as Jones (1997) and Hood-Williams (1998) point out, such value judgements are inconsistent with the poststructuralist deconstructive position. [3] Although power relations are multiple and specific to local interactive environments, inequalities according to ethnicity, gender, social class and so on continue to exist at a macro level.…”

“…As Balbus [1987] and Assiter [1996] have argued, such humanist positions are often also modernist, as they suppose human agency and the possibility of an improving history through human project). To poststructuralists we are simply vessels positioned and repositioned in relations of power through discourses: we do not actively choose which discourses we take up and use (Hood-Williams, 1998). The belief that we have our own coherent, meaning-making personalities is simply due to our positioning within discourses of liberal, humanist individualism (Jones, 1997;Hood-Williams, 1998).…”

“…As such, there is coherence among poststructuralist (as distinct from broader, postmodernist) positions in their rejection of structuralist certainty and fixity, and in the intention to 'open up' or deconstruct the discursive grand narratives underlying texts (see Jones, 1997;Hood-Williams, 1998). …”

“…To poststructuralists we are simply vessels positioned and repositioned in relations of power through discourses: we do not actively choose which discourses we take up and use (Hood-Williams, 1998). The belief that we have our own coherent, meaning-making personalities is simply due to our positioning within discourses of liberal, humanist individualism (Jones, 1997;Hood-Williams, 1998). The poststructuralist concept of the self as lacking coherence and agency clearly holds consequences for the feminist project: struggles for emancipation are rendered pointless if we actually have no control of our lives.…”