FW: Languages, Discourses & Society Academic Group Seminar - Christine Skelton Abstract

[Helen Sauntson]

Some of you may be interested in the following seminar which will take
place at the University of Birmingham on 21st November. 
All welcome
 
Helen
 

 
 

 



 

SEMINAR 

 

Wednesday 21st November, 2007, 3:30 - 5:00p.m.

 

School of Education

Room 224

Christine Skelton, University of Birmingham

 

"Gender Discourses in Primary Schools"

 

It is almost 30 years since the publication of Eileen Byrne's (1978)
Women and Education, one of the first UK books on gender and education.
The chapter in Byrne's book 'Pre-school and primary - the formative
years' made two related arguments. The first was theoretical where she
set out the reasons why gender differences were more likely due to
socialisation than genetics or innate abilities. The second argument was
that stereotypical differences pervaded classroom materials,
organisation, and teacher attitudes and expectations; and it was the
perpetuation of these that accounted for the differences between girls
and boys. These, and other markers of gender inequalities experienced by
pupils in schools were dubbed 'the schooling scandal' by Dale Spender
(1982). In the thirty years that have elapsed since second wave
feminists in the UK started to research schooling there has appeared a
rich literature on gender, inequality and education; policies have been
developed and, more recently, the government has produced guidance
materials on gender and the teaching and learning of boys and girls. The
question this session sets out to consider is 'to what extent has "the
schooling scandal" of gender inequities been resolved for girls and boys
in today's primary schools?'

 

This session will identify current discourses on gender in primary
schools, specifically, policy discourses, professional discourses and
the personal discourses of primary teachers. Data used to illustrate the
discussion will be drawn from an ESRC study involving interviews with
and observations of fifty one teachers and three hundred 7-8 year old
pupils in schools in England. The findings of this project, together
with conclusions drawn from other recent studies of primary schools,
indicate that the focus on 'achievement' and 'experience' remain the
same but the influence of neoliberalism has masked the ways in which
gender inequalities continue.

 

 

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