Separate Schools: Gender, Policy, and Practice in Postwar Soviet Education (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)

Starting in 1943, millions of children were separated into boys' and girls' schools in cities across the Soviet Union. The government sought to reinforce gender roles in a wartime context and to strengthen discipline and order by separating boys and girls into different classrooms. The program was a failure. Discipline further deteriorated in boys' schools, and despite intentions to keep the education equal, girls' schools experienced increased perceptions of academic inferiority, particularly in the subjects of math and science. The restoration of coeducation in 1954 demonstrated the power of public opinion, even in a dictatorship, to influence school policies. In the first full-length study of the program, Ewing examines this large-scale experiment across the full cycle of deliberating, advocating, implementing, experiencing, criticizing, and finally repudiating separate schools. Looking at the encounters of pupils in classrooms, policy objectives of communist leaders, and growing opposition to separate schools among teachers and parents, Ewing provides new insights into the last decade of Stalin's dictatorship. A comparative analysis of the Soviet case with recent efforts in the United States and elsewhere raises important questions. Based on extensive research that includes the archives of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, __Separate Schools__ will appeal to historians of Russia, those interested in comparative education and educational history, and specialists in gender studies. "Starting in 1943, millions of children were separated into boys' and girls' schools in cities across the Soviet Union. This policy sought to reinforce gender roles in a wartime context, so that boys were prepared to be soldiers and girls to be mothers, and it marked a deliberate effort to strengthen discipline and order by separating boys and girls into different classrooms. The policy was a failure. The practices of separate schools allowed for the further deterioration of discipline in boys' schools while provoking pupils, teachers, and school directors to warn against lowered academic expectations in girls' schools. The restoration of coeducation in 1954 demonstrated the power of public opinion, even in a dictatorship, to influence school policies. Ewing makes a unique contribution to the field by examining a large-scale experiment across the full cycle of deliberating, advocating, implementing, experiencing, criticizing, and finally repudiating separate schools. Analyzing the experiences of pupils in classrooms, the policy objectives of communist leaders, and the growing opposition to separate schools among teachers and parents, Ewing provides new insights into the last decade of Stalin's dictatorship. Based on extensive archival research, this important work demonstrates the real limitations and likely distortions that result from a policy of separate schools for boys and girls. Ewing's study shows how a school system that had previously embraced coeducation was transformed by the imposition of separate schooling."--From publisher description

Starting in 1943, millions of children were separated into boys' and girls' schools in cities across the Soviet Union. The government sought to reinforce gender roles in a wartime context and to strengthen discipline and order by separating boys and girls into different classrooms. The program was a failure. Discipline further deteriorated in boys' schools, and despite intentions to keep the education equal, girls' schools experienced increased perceptions of academic inferiority, particularly in the subjects of math and science. The restoration of coeducation in 1954 demonstrated the power of public opinion, even in a dictatorship, to influence school policies. In the first full-length study of the program, Ewing examines this large-scale experiment across the full cycle of deliberating, advocating, implementing, experiencing, criticizing, and finally repudiating separate schools. Looking at the encounters of pupils in classrooms, policy objectives of communist leaders, and growing opposition to separate schools among teachers and parents, Ewing provides new insights into the last decade of Stalin's dictatorship. A comparative analysis of the Soviet case with recent efforts in the United States and elsewhere raises important questions. Based on extensive research that includes the archives of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Separate Schools will appeal to historians of Russia, those interested in comparative education and educational history, and specialists in gender studies.

Introduction: why single sex schooling? Disciplining gender: making the case for separate schools Teaching and learning in separate schools Clean, warm, and calm: girls' schools in action The problem of order: boys' schools in crisis Debating policy: the challenge to separate education Restoring coeducation: the end of an experiment Conclusion: learning lessons from Soviet separate schools.