任何思想都无法脱离它所栖居的历史时空，内尔·诺丁斯的性别平等教育思想亦是如此。在美国第二次女性主义运动的推动下，诺丁斯深刻分析了人际疏离、性别不平等的社会境况以及男性中心的学校教育，在继承并发展了约翰·杜威、卡罗尔·吉利根、简·罗兰·马丁等的教育思想的基础上，建构了一种以“差异性平等”为目标的性别平等教育，即以关怀为核心的平衡两性差异的性别平等教育。

  这种教育包含两个主要特征：一是两性差异的平衡，即男性偏好的公正伦理与女性偏好的关怀伦理的平衡；二是以关怀作为教育的核心，即围绕关怀组织教育。前者强调在教育中彰显“女性的声音”，实现男女两性特质与经验的平衡，因而这种教育是一种“性别平等的教育”；后者则在前者的基础上，强调通过面向男女两性的关怀教育，激发男女两性的关怀潜能，培养关怀伦理的思维模式，以使男女两性都能从关怀伦理的视角反思男性中心的文化传统，从而提升人们的性别平等意识，因而这种教育亦是一种“培育性别平等意识的教育”。具体而言，这种教育以建立性别平等的关怀关系为首要目的，发生于家庭、学校、社会三个场域。教育者主要在批判性课程中，采用以对话法为核心的教育方法，教授关于公共生活与私人生活的内容——平衡两性经验的教育内容，力图使男女两性都能从关怀伦理的视角反思男性中心的文化传统，也都能成为合格的关怀者与敏感的被关怀者，从而建立一种性别平等的关怀关系，进而创建一个男女两性相互关怀、平等发展的和谐社会。

  诺丁斯的思想一经提出便引发了激烈争论。诺丁斯在回应质疑的过程中，也发展了自身的理论。其性别平等教育思想的发展主要体现在三个方面：“女性化”关怀向“去性别化”关怀的发展；抽象的理论构想向具体的教育实践的扩展；对话法的地位的逐步凸显及其内涵的不断丰富。经过长期的发展，该思想愈加成熟，实现了理想性与现实性的统一。并且，诺丁斯是在扬弃女性经验的基础上建构了一种性别平等教育，为我们提供了一种开展性别平等教育的新路径。然而，该思想也具有局限性。在“适应性偏好”的影响下，这种教育可能会反过来强化传统的性别文化。以关怀伦理为核心、以公正伦理为从属的特征，也使得该思想具有了女性中心主义的倾向。此外，两种道德取向与性别的密切联系以及女性经验的同质化特征使得该思想具有了性别本质主义的特征。但从总体上看，该思想对于当代中国性别平等教育的发展具有较强的借鉴意义。只是在借鉴这一思想时，我们应尤其警惕并淡化它的性别本质主义特征。

    No thought can be detached from the historical space in which it is relying on, no does Nel Noddings’ thought on gender equality education. Driven by the second feminist movement in the United States, Noddings deeply analyzed the social situation of interpersonal alienation, gender inequality, and male-centered school education. On the basis of the inheritance and development of John Dewey’s, Carol Gilligan’s and Jane Roland Martin’s thought on education, a gender equality education aiming at “Differential Equality” was constructed by Noddings. It is also a gender equality education that balances gender differences with care as the core.

    This gender equality education contains two main characteristics: one is the balance of gender differences, that is, the balance between the Justice Ethics of men’s preference and Care Ethics of women’s preference; the second is that care is the core of education, that is, education is organized around care. The former emphasizes highlighting the “Female Voice” in education to achieve a balance between the characteristics and experience of men and women. Therefore, it is an education with gender equality; on the basis of the former, the latter emphasizes to develop the thinking mode, Care Ethics, so that both men and women learn to reflect on the male-centered cultural tradition from the perspective of Care Ethics, through which people’s awareness of gender equality can be improved. Therefore, it is also a kind of education to cultivate the awareness of gender equality. Specifically, its primary purpose is to establish a caring relationship of gender equality, and it exists in the three fields: family, school and society. Educators mainly adopt the method with the dialogue method as the core in critical courses to teach content about public and private life—the content that balances the experience of both genders, and strives to enable both genders to reflect on the male-centered traditional culture from the perspective of Care Ethics, and to become qualified caregivers and sensitive care recipients, through which a gender-equal caring relationship between men and women can be established and a harmonious society can be created, in which men and women care about each other and develop equally.

    Noddings’ thought aroused fierce controversy in academia as soon as it was put forward. Through responding to questions, Noddings developed her own theory. The development of her thought on gender equality education is mainly reflected in three aspects: firstly, feminine care developed into de-gendering care; secondly, the thought was expanded from abstract theoretical conception to concrete educational practice; The status of dialogue education method was gradually highlighted, and its connotation was constantly enriched. After long-term development, her thought has become more mature, achieving the unity of ideality and reality. Moreover, Noddings constructed a gender equality education based on the sublation of female experience, providing us with a new path towards gender equality. However, this thought also has some limitations. Under the influence of “Adaptive Preference”, this kind of education may strengthen the traditional gender culture. Its characteristic, taking Care Ethics as the core and Justice Ethics as subordination, also makes it have the tendency of regarding female as primary. In addition, the close connection between the two moral orientations and genders, as well as the homogenization of female experience, also make this thought have the characteristics of gender essentialism. However, on the whole, this thought can serve as reference for the development of the gender equality education in contemporary China. But when drawing lessons from it, we should be alert to and weaken its gender essentialism.