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Gender ‘matters’ in the primary classroom: pupils' and teachers' perspectives

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Christine Skelton, Ian Hall

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Abstract

A recent project involving Year 3 (seven-eight year-old) pupils and their teachers revealed that 'gender matters' differently to boys and girls, and teachers. The study sought to elicit whether pupils and their teachers felt the gender of a teacher mattered to their experiences of schooling. Pupils were concerned about how effective teachers were in carrying out their professional functions and a teacher's gender was subsumed within this. For these pupils, 'gender mattered' in terms of the construction of their own gender identities. In contrast, teachers were aware of and attentive to the gender of pupils in managing and organising classroom interactions. The variety of differing views expressed and positions adopted towards the place of gender in teacher-pupil interactions demonstrates the complexity of developing 'one size fits all' approaches to tackling gender equity in the classroom.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Skelton C, Carrington B, Francis B, Hutchings M, Read B, Hall I

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: British Educational Research Journal

Year: 2009

Volume: 35

Issue: 2

Pages: 187-204

ISSN (print): 0141-1926

ISSN (electronic): 1469-3518

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920802041905

DOI: 10.1080/01411920802041905

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