Gender in teaching: a literature review

Internationally, both in popular and scientific media, debates occasionally emerge concerning the possible (negative) consequences of feminisation tendencies in the teaching staff. In these discussions, various assumptions about the ‘nature’ of male and female teachers and masculinity and femininity are expressed. Male and female teachers are often presumed to differ in teaching styles, capacities and effects on both the teaching profession and the pupils. The arguments used in these debates only seldom refer to particular theoretical grounds or to empirical evidence. Moreover, apart from Sandra Acker’s essay ‘Gender and teachers’ work’ in 1995 Acker, S. 1995. “Gender and teachers’ work”. In Review of research in education, Edited by: Apple, M. W. 99–162. Washington DC: American Educational Research Association. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], educational research lacks an up‐to‐date review of teacher gender. Therefore, this article aims to provide insight into contemporary theoretical gender perspectives. It also intends to connect these with empirical research that takes teacher gender into account. Most of the research studies referred to in this article do not explicitly state their underlying theoretical principles. Yet, since these studies have distinct research foci, research questions, methodologies and conclusions, they appear to depart from a variety of gender conceptualisations. Therefore, in this article the differences between these conceptualisations will be examined and the divergent theoretical assumptions underlying these studies will be revealed. The two most widespread and disparate perspectives in gender theory are the essentialist perspectives on the one hand and the constructionist perspectives on the other. The differences between them are made up by the degree to which explanations are deterministic and focused on the individual rather than on the social and cultural level. Drawing upon this theoretical contrast, we divided the body of research on teacher gender into two divergent research traditions: sex differences research and gender dynamics research. The research questions, underlying theoretical principles and methodologies of these two traditions are examined.     

Constructing men who teach: research into care and gender as productive of the male primary teacher

This paper argues that in order to begin loosening the ties that bind care and gender in primary education, we need to re-examine the knowledge sought and found by educational research about teachers. The focus is primarily on how we understand men who teach. Through an examination of two scholarly texts – Ashley, M., and J. Lee [2003 Ashley, M., and J. Lee. 2003. Women Teaching Boys: Caring and Working in the Primary School. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham. [Google Scholar]. Women Teaching Boys: Caring and Working in the Primary School. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham] and King, J. [1998 King, J. 1998. Uncommon Caring: Learning from Men Who Teach Young Children. New York: TCP. [Google Scholar]. Uncommon Caring: Learning from Men Who Teach Young Children. New York: TCP] – I argue that we must be mindful that our research can effectively produce and reiterate common-sense understandings of men that binds them to the hegemonic masculine ideal. It is argued that mixed-method qualitative research that untangles the layers of context influencing the lives of men who teach is important. The paper also suggests that the study of male teachers' emotions, as at once individual and social, and private and public, can disrupt the rational–emotional binary that cements care to gender and reveal new configurations of the gender order.     

Talking (fe)male: examining the gendered discourses of preservice teachers

Through the use of feminist poststructural discourse analysis (Baxter 2003 Baxter, J. 2003. Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the author examines the gendered discourses created and reified by a group of preservice secondary social studies teachers (n?=?25). Because gender is socially constructed, it is important for future teachers to examine their own gendered identities in order for them to be able to see how they contribute to the greater society. Findings reveal discourses of ‘having it all', ‘being a superwoman', ‘female struggle', and ‘gender not playing a key role in culture’ being advanced by both male and female identified individuals. Intersections of race and social class with gender added to the complexity of the different discourses. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Revisiting “The Master's Tools”: Challenging Common Sense in Cross-Cultural Teacher Education

Although school climate has been thought to be especially important for racial minority and poor students (Booker, 2006 Booker, K. C. 2006. School belonging and the African American adolescent: What do we know and where should we go?. The High School Journal, 89(4): 1–7. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Haynes, Emmons, &; Ben-Avie, 1997 Haynes, N. M., Emmons, C. and Ben-Avie, M. 1997. School climate as a factor in student adjustment and achievement. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 8(3): 321–329. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), little research has explored the significance of racial climate for these students. Furthermore, research in the area has tended to treat race, socioeconomic class, and gender separately, ignoring the ways in which they interact. Using quantitative survey data from 842 African American and white middle school students, this study examined the associations of race, class, and gender with school racial climate perceptions. Results indicated students’ perceptions of racial climate differed by race, class, and gender. African American, poor, and female students perceived the racial climate in more negative terms than their white, non-poor, and male counterparts, respectively. Results also indicated joint associations between race and class and climate perceptions. Non-poor, African American students perceived a more negative racial climate than did non-poor Whites. There was limited support for a race and gender interaction. African American females tended to perceive less racial fairness in school than African American males. We discuss the conceptual and methodological tradeoffs of examining students’ school racial climate perceptions from a perspective that considers race, class, and gender jointly.     

The social justice implications of privatisation in education governance frameworks: a relational account

This paper explores the social justice implications of two, ‘linked’, governance developments which have been instrumental in reshaping many education systems throughout the world: the ‘privatising’ and ‘globalising’ of education (Klees, Stromquist, & Samoff, 2012 Klees, S., Stromquist, N. and Samoff, J., eds. 2012. A critical review of the World Bank’s education strategy 2020, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.  [Google Scholar]). We argue that such education governance innovations demand an explicit engagement with social justice theories, both in themselves, and as offering an opportunity to address issues of social justice that go beyond the re/distribution of education inputs and outputs, important though these are, and which take account of the political and accountability issues raised by globalising of education governance activity. To do this we draw upon Iris Marion Young’s concept of ‘the basic structure’ and her ‘social connection model’ of responsibility (Young, 2006 Young, I. M. 2006. Taking the basic structure seriously. Perspectives in Politics, 4: 91–97. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]a,b) to develop a relational account of justice in education governance frameworks.     

Considering (auto)biography in teaching and learning about race and racism in a diverse university

The ‘sociological imagination’ – the recognition of the relationship between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’ (Mills [1959] 2000 Mills, C. Wright. [1959] 2000. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 8) – is central to the discipline of sociology. This article reports findings of a 2014 study which investigated students’ views on whether the development of the sociological imagination could be more explicitly embedded in a module on Race and Racisms through an (auto)biographical approach from teachers and the module’s racially diverse students. After reviewing benefits and challenges to an (auto)biographical approach, the article presents findings from a student focus group, concluding that students would welcome (auto)biographical approaches to the topic of race and racism, with the caveat that this is handled sensitively with steps taken to minimise the risk of emotional harm.     

‘Confianza is where I can be myself’: Latina mothers’ constructions of community in education reform

This paper brings together ethnographic data and testimonies from a group of Latina mother activists with critical race theories, to challenge dominant views of home-school relations and re-envision the ‘homeplace’ as a site of radical resistance (Hooks (1990 Hooks, B. 1990. Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics, Boston, MA: South End Press.  [Google Scholar]) Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics (Boston, MA, South End Press)). Madres Unidas (Mothers United) is a participatory research team made up of immigrant mothers who helped start a new small school for their children. Over the course of a year, Madres Unidas met weekly around a kitchen table in one of the mother's homes. This paper analyzes the educational space created by Madres Unidas in contrast to the spaces for parent participation provided by the school. For the mothers in Madres Unidas, the home became a place to restore their sense of self and a place from which to critique, engage, and take action against school practices that silenced them.     

The challenges of intersectionality: researching difference in physical education 1

Researching the intersection of class, race, gender, sexuality and disability raises many issues for educational research. Indeed, Maynard (2002 Maynard, M. 2002. Studying age, ‘race’ and gender: Translating a research proposal into a project. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5: 31–40. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], 33) has recently argued that ‘difference is one of the most significant, yet unresolved, issues for feminist and social thinking at the beginning of the twentieth century’. This paper reviews some of the key imperatives of working with ‘intersectional theory’ and explores the extent to these debates are informing research around difference in education and Physical Education (PE). The first part of the paper highlights some key issues in theorising and researching intersectionality before moving on to consider how difference has been addressed within PE. The paper then considers three ongoing challenges of intersectionality – bodies and embodiment, politics and practice and empirical research. The paper argues for a continued focus on the specific context of PE within education for its contribution to these questions.     

‘I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore’: a British gay educator's reconstructed life‐history account of school

In this paper, I reflect on how the culture of schooling that I experienced throughout the 1970s and early 1980s scaffolded a formative awareness of sexual difference. Quinlivan and Town have pointed out that ‘School communities seldom have to move beyond the personal deficit model in attempting to meet the needs of Lesbian and Gay youth’ (Quinlivan & Town, 1999 Quinlivan, K. and Town, S. 1999. “Queer as fuck? exploring the potential of queer pedagogies, in researching school experiences of lesbian and gay youth,”. In A dangerous knowing: sexuality, pedagogy and popular culture, Edited by: Epstein, D and Sears, J (Eds). London: Cassell.  [Google Scholar], p.251). In reconstructing the memories of those days, months and years, I offer a personal account of how schooling reinforces heterosexual identification, through gender display, and situates students in activities where deviation from what is considered and accepted as ‘normal’ is pathologised. I hope to convincingly tell what it felt like to be positioned within institutional discourses that naturalised and rehearsed a collective knowledge about sexuality.     

Mathematics motivation and engagement: an independent evaluation of a complex model with Australian rural high school students

Most traditional models of academic motivation focus on a small number of specific factors. However, the Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) (Martin, 2007b Martin, A.J. 2007b. The motivation and engagement scale, Sydney, , Australia: Lifelong Achievement Group.  [Google Scholar]) includes a fairly comprehensive range of perspectives on general student motivation. The current study set out (a) to provide an independent test of the proposed 11-factor structure of the MES for boys and girls when (b) applied to high school mathematics in Australia (N = 1014; Years 7 to 11). It also examined (c) the covariation of different facets of motivation and engagement with gender, year level, and scholastic achievement. The hypothesised 11-factor model fit reasonably well across gender, and there was clear evidence of specificity to maths compared to English achievement. Some gender and grade effects were observed as well. The study provides support for the value of the Martin model and its instrument. It also extends our knowledge of student motivation to mathematics in Australian rural high schools.     

Performativity,guilty knowledge,and ethnographic intervention

This paper applies Dennis’ [(2009 Dennis, B. 2009. “What Does It Mean When an Ethnographer Intervenes?” Ethnography and Education 4 (2): 131–146. doi: 10.1080/17457820902972762[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). “What does it Mean when an Ethnographer Intervenes?” Ethnography and Education 4 (2): 131–146] modes of ethnographic intervention to a fieldwork experience of an observed secondary school lesson in England. Ethnographic research raises numerous ethical dilemmas, in the face of which ‘intervention’ is unavoidable. The observed lesson – in which a teacher was judged as ‘Requiring Improvement’ – left me with ‘guilty knowledge’. The performative nature of observed lessons constructs highly charged events. Drawing particular attention to the power imbalances between observer and observed, ethical deliberation about the event is considered, and subsequent ‘interpersonal’ and ‘administrative’ intervention is presented. As ethnographers, it is impossible to avoid intervening in some sense. I conclude that performativity raises ethical issues which may demand particular responses from ethnographic researchers, whose empathetic intention places them well to explore – and critically engage with – the workings and effects of performativity.     

Hannah Arendt and Norwegian Muslim children’s schooling: in pursuit of democratic practices

The aim of this paper is to consider whether Hannah Arendt’s (1996) [Arendt, H. (1958/1998 Arendt, H. (1958/1998). Vita Activa. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago. [Google Scholar]). Vita Activa. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago] concept of ‘public space’ is a potentially useful and creative way of thinking about aspects of Muslim children’s experiences within the context of education. Following a terror attack in 2011, when 77 people were killed, the then Norwegian prime minister stated that ‘our answer to this violence is more openness and more democracy but not naivety’. Accordingly, this paper draws on data so as to put concepts drawn from Arendt to work. In so doing, we indicate possibilities for ‘more openness and more democracy’ where Norwegian children can have Islam as an important element within their lives in ways that avoid the charge of naivety.     

Charter Schools: Implications for Teachers and Administrators

Young adolescents’ low scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) force the question of whether these students will be ready for college in four years. Our efforts to build a college-going culture emphasize strengthening students’ writing skills by using preservice teachers to lead writing marathons for at-risk middle school students on university visits. Structured interviews, surveys, and written reflections reveal that what students write about changes with age, their motivation to write varies, and their college aspirations and perceptions become more positive after completing several annual writing marathons on a college campus. The writing marathon structure makes the college visit truly meaningful to students, and it provides a compelling incentive to write by supporting characteristics of middle school students, as defined by the National Middle School Association (National Middle School Association [NMSA] 2003 National Middle School Association (NMSA). 2003. This we believe. Successful schools for young adolescents, Westerville, OH: National Middle School Association.  [Google Scholar]). The marathon model focuses on four key elements: setting, timing, small groups, and writers’ level of commitment.     

Discplacing identity – placing aesthetics: early childhood literacy in a globalized world

ABSTRACT

‘How to give brain and body to the multiple pack that we already are or are becoming: how, in other words, are we to make sensible (auditory, visually and affectively) the time before “I think” and “We think” that we cannot plan, control or know, but simply experiment with, which is the “time of the city” and nothing else?’ (Rajchman, 2010 Rajchman, J. (2010). Perceptions of the city. In Helena Mattsson & Sven-Olov Wallenstein (Eds.), Deleuze och mångfaldens veck [Deleuze and the fold of multiplicity] (pp. 21–40). Stockholm: Axl Books. [Google Scholar], p. 39)

These powerful words constitute the starting point for this article that argues that, within the context of early childhood literacy in a globalized and ‘multicultural’ world, we need to experiment with new ways of understanding identity and language through amalgamating early childhood pedagogy and didactics with aesthetics. Such an endeavour needs to take place beyond ‘the indignity of speaking for the other’ (Deleuze, 2004 Deleuze, G. (2004). Desert islands and other texts 1953–1974. Edited by d. Lapoujade. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e). [Google Scholar], p. 208) and beyond the constructed categories that have been attributed to children in the name of one or another minority group. Through vivid examples and theoretical movements taking place within the research project ‘The Magic of Language’ we propose to shift focus – from the identifying and categorizing of individuals, as well as from the epistemological violence performed in the name of recognition and linguistic representation – to aesthetic experimentation and to the place of experiments. A ‘time of the city’ is also a ‘time of the place’ and in this article we are arguing for the importance of aesthetic experimenting with that place.     

Negotiating queer and religious identities in higher education: queering ‘progression’ in the ‘university experience’

This article addresses the negotiation of ‘queer religious’ student identities in UK higher education. The ‘university experience’ has generally been characterised as a period of intense transformation and self-exploration, with complex and overlapping personal and social influences significantly shaping educational spaces, subjects and subjectivities. Engaging with ideas about progressive tolerance and becoming, often contrasted against ‘backwards’ religious homophobia as a sentiment/space/subject ‘outside’ education, this article follows the experiences and expectations of queer Christian students. In asking whether notions of ‘queering higher education’ (Rumens 2014 Rumens, N. 2014. “Queer Business: Towards Queering the Purpose of the Business School.” In The Entrepreneurial University: Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts, edited by Y. Taylor, 82–104. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) ‘fit’ with queer-identifying religious youth, the article explores how educational experiences are narrated and made sense of as ‘progressive’. Educational transitions allow (some) sexual-religious subjects to negotiate identities more freely, albeit with ongoing constraints. Yet perceptions of what, where and who is deemed ‘progressive’ and ‘backwards’ with regard to sexuality and religion need to be met with caution, where the ‘university experience’ can shape and shake sexual-religious identity.     

Interrogating global flows in higher education

The paper critically reviews the concept of ‘global flows’, beginning with the discussions of flows and networks in Appadurai (1996 Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalisation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]), Castells (2000 Castells, M. 2000. The rise of the network society, Oxford: Blackwell. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) and Held et al. (1999 Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. 1999. Global transformations: politics, economics and culture, Stanford: Stanford University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Emphasising the need to embed ‘global flows’ in agency and history, and to explore global connectedness in terms of situated cases, the paper develops an analytical framework for analysing global flows in higher education. It then applies that framework in an examination of global ‘scapes’, impacts, transformations, situatedness and relations of power in two national universities, research leaders in their nations but located in contrasting nations: Universitas Indnesia and the Australian National University.     

The White Working Class,Racism and Respectability: Victims,Degenerates and Interest-Convergence

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that race and class inequalities cannot be fully understood in isolation: their intersectional quality is explored through an analysis of how the White working class were portrayed in popular and political discourse during late 2008 (the timing is highly significant). While global capitalism reeled on the edge of financial melt-down, the essential values of neo-liberalism were reasserted as natural, moral and efficient through two apparently contrasting discourses. First, a victim discourse presented White working people, and their children in particular, as suffering educationally because of minoritised racial groups and their advocates. Second a discourse of degeneracy presented an immoral and barbaric underclass as a threat to social and economic order. Applying the ‘interest-convergence principle’, from Critical Race Theory, the discourses amount to a strategic mobilisation of White interests where the ‘White, but not quite’ status of the working class (Allen, 2009 Allen, R.L. 2009. “What about poor White people?”. In Handbook of Social Justice in Education, Edited by: Ayers, W., Quinn, T. and Stovall, D. 209–230. New York: Routledge.  [Google Scholar]) provides a buffer zone at a time of economic and cultural crisis which secures societal White supremacy and provides a further setback to progressive reforms that focus on race, gender and disability equality. The existence of poor Whites, therefore, is not only consistent with a regime of White supremacy – they are actually an essential part of the processes that sustain it.     

How Big is Your Effect Size: Doing Research in the Classroom

It would be impossible to preface what follows with one of those ‘disclaimers’ that insist ‘the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of…’ This would not only be disingenuous, it would deny the history that I draw on to make an argument about teaching, learning and research. Twenty-five years ago I came to the Institute of Education to do an MA in Language and Literature. My tutors were Jane Miller and Tony Burgess. Since 1989 I have been working at the Institute as a member of what used to be called the English department, largely as a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) and MA tutor. My ideas about classrooms as places where creativity and cultural making are defining characteristics have grown out of my work here, the time I’ve spent in classrooms and working with trainee teachers and MA students. As important have been the conversations I have had with colleagues in the Institute and the writing I’ve done with them. This history has its roots in the work of James Britton and Harold Rosen and their insistence that we have no choice but to ‘begin from where the children are’ (Britton, J. [1970 Britton, J. [1970] 1975. Language and Learning. Harmondsworth: Penguin. [Google Scholar]] 1975 Britton, J. [1970] 1975. Language and Learning. Harmondsworth: Penguin. [Google Scholar]. Language and Learning. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 134), to see the linguistic and cultural resources that pupils bring with them to the classroom as the foundation for learning. John Yandell’s work is part of this history, particularly his many studies of the ways in which students illuminate and make sense of the literature they encounter in the classroom. ‘The text, the classroom and the world outside’ is the sub-heading of Chapter 6 of his book The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban English Classrooms (Yandell, J. 2013 Yandell, J. 2013. The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban English Classrooms. Abingdon: Routledge.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]. The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban English Classrooms. Abingdon: Routledge.) and it signals a clear link between John’s work and the Bullock Report of 1975, with its insistence that no child should be expected to ‘cast off the language and culture of the home as he crosses the school threshold, nor to live and act as though school and home represented two totally different cultures which have to be kept firmly apart’ (Bullock, A. (Chairman). 1975 Bullock, A. (Chairman). 1975. A Language for Life. The Bullock Report: HMSO. [Google Scholar]. A Language for Life. The Bullock Report. HMSO, 286).     

Involving a village: student teachers' sense of belonging in their school-based placement

Educating a student on teaching placement involves a ‘village’, just as it takes a whole ‘village’ to raise a child. Creating a ‘village’ around each student teacher gives them greater agency, a sense of belonging and being valued as a member of that professional ‘village’. Participating students, teachers and lecturers share their perceptions of experiences in the one-day school-based placement that student teachers are required to undertake in a University of Waikato distance programme. Opportunities, relationships and a sense of inclusion are identified as influencing characteristics, “the all important human infrastructure that provides the opportunity for learners to succeed” (Campbell-Gibson, 1997 Campbell-Gibson, C. 1997. Teaching/learning at a distance: A paradigm shift in progress. Distance Education in North America, 1: 6–8.  [Google Scholar], p. 8) rather than any modern technologies. Findings indicate that where the school acted as the ‘village of learning’, the perceived suitability of the placement as a site for learning teaching was conceptualised through a developed sense of belonging, accomplishment and inclusion. It is argued that greater effort should be made by initial teacher education providers to locate such ‘villages’ for student teacher placements.