Gender in Education 3 – 19: A Fresh Approach

“Gender and Education” consists of “a spectrum of views commissioned and published by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers” and while it was published in 2004 many of the ideas, themes and concepts discussed are still, as you might expect, extant in contemporary Sociologies of Education.

In the main the articles – there are 10 in all – are:

fairly short (7 – 8 pages),

reasonably accessible to a-level students,

written by academics who’ve subsequently become some of the most well-known and significant writers in UK education (such as, David Gillborn, Louise Archer, Heidi Mirza, Stephen Gorad and Becky Francis)

cover various aspects and dimensions of gendered education.

The articles include materials that feed directly into the A-level Specification – the gendered curriculum, gendered subject choices, intersections of class, race and gender and their impact on attainment – as well as those that might be considered more-tangentially perhaps: this might include things like discussion of gender and learning styles (one, as you might expect, that’s a lot more nuanced than the usual uncritical acceptance of style differences), classroom interaction and the uses of gendered spaces and school exclusions.

While, as I’ve noted, you need to be aware this material was published 17 – 18 years ago there’s definitely stuff here that can contribute to our understanding of contemporary education differences and inequalities – either as a background resource for teachers to select and present to students or as material that can be given directly to students as a way of encouraging them to read more-widely.

It can also, of course, be used as a comparative resource to assess the extent to which gendered forms of education in Britain have changed.

Or not as the case may be.