Education for Social Change or the Status Quo? Gender, Curriculum, and the State in Soviet and Post-Soviet Belarus

Curriculum is a key mechanism through which states construct and normalize dominant gender ideologies and power relations (Paechter 2000; Apple 2004). Using critical discourse analysis, this article compares gender education curricula in Soviet- and post-Soviet-era Belarus by examining the gender norms, roles, and identities they articulate and the shifting role of education in shaping gender relations in each political era. The comparison reveals a transition from a Soviet-era conceptualization of education as a transformative social force to promote the official gender-equality rhetoric to the post-Soviet model where education functions as a tool of social control to construct and reinforce gender hierarchy. The shift demonstrates how changes in state priorities and ideologies directly shape curriculum development and gender politics. By historicizing gender and the relationship between education and the state, the article contributes to debates on the role of the state in shaping gender relations through education.