The Potential of Inclusive School Dress Codes Essay

Assignment Question

Dress codes are the school policy I’m choosing to analyze. Your analysis is a deconstruction of the practice or policy. That is, many of these traditional practices and policies we live with in school are considered “normal” and a “natural” part of school. We rarely ever question their purpose, how they are enacted, and how they might be beneficial or even harmful (or exclusionary). In this analysis, I’m asking you to really uncover things that you did not know about these school practices and policies. These are the questions that your analysis should address: What is it, and how does it get enacted typically? What is its purpose, and according to whom? What does it assume about children (their value and how they learn)? How does it benefit children? How does it not? Who could it potentially exclude? What alternatives are there, and how could those alternatives reshape children’s experiences and learning?