Introduction

The pressing question raised by the previous chapter is whether women's rights to develop their culturally variable forms of autonomy can be supported by means of a uniform system of liberal education. On the one hand, in ensuring that all persons develop capacities for self-direction in a just political order, the state should not, as I have argued, undermine the cultural sources of their core capacities. However, we have also seen that cultural resources will not always suffice to ensure all persons' freedom from coercion; and securing different forms of autonomy should also involve encouraging young citizens' awareness of different ethical views and non-traditional gender relations to some extent. Taking my cue, then, from the dilemma highlighted previously, the question that I now address is whether a liberal educational policy can be formulated that avoids undermining cultural and religious diversity. In particular, would efforts to secure the rights that we have defended so far interfere with the conformist way that conservative groups often encourage their members to hold their beliefs? Or, in loftier terms, must liberal education ‘order the souls’ of those who adhere to non-liberal beliefs (Macedo 2000: 30)?

To clarify the meaning of the term ‘ordering souls’ in this context, it is worth observing first that education in a liberal society is typically not neutral and, through its tolerance of alternative modes of living, levies a high tax on traditional cultures which often place priority on the transmission of faith between generations (Tomasi 2001: 25).