Why read greco-roman authors? A coeducational perspective in the training of secondary school students

Abstract

From an interdisciplinary and curricular perspective, the main objective of this research has been to analyze the coeducational and historical character that Greco-Roman writings convey about women and the daily practices that appear in their gender relations. The sample is made up of 208 students from three publicly-owned educational centers, enrolled in the third year of Secondary Education and in the optional subject of classical culture. For the collection of information, a quantitative questionnaire that was grouped into three categories was used and validated: (1) the teaching method implemented in the subject, (2) the beliefs of the students about the Roman woman in educational iconography, and finally (3) the assessments of the students in relation to the narratives of the Greco-Roman authors. In the same way, to know the perceptions of the students we propose an investigation that focused on reading five historical texts and answering several guiding questions that served to guide their work dossiers. The results yielded interesting reflections on the situation of feminine inferiority that are collected in the written texts and the images of the educational manuals. In conclusion we highlight the improvement in historical skills and personalized construction in the learning of classical literature.