University of Winchester
Education Studies, Education Studies (Early Childhood)
E3207
Semester 1: Mondays 12.00-2.00
Stephanie Spencer
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Last updated 02.12.10.
This module investigates the construction, negotiation and contestation of femininities and masculinities in schools. The place of the curriculum (formal and ‘hidden’), interactions between children and adults, teaching and management styles, gender and race, gender and disability and questions of sexuality and power in contemporary gender relations in schools will be analysed critically in the light of a variety of theoretical perspectives and education philosophies introduced in earlier modules. The interaction of gender and notions of professionalism and the position of women in school management will be explored. Methodological issues in researching gender in schools and classrooms, and theoretical questions in relation to strategies for assessing gender inequality will be subjected to critique.
Aims / outcomes
a) Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the theory and practice of gender in schools
b) Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
c) Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
d) Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
e) Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as critique.
Week 1 Introduction: the gender question
Week 2 Theorising femininity
Week 3 Theorising masculinity
Week 4 Barbie and Ken. Creating gendered stereotypes
Week 5 Gender in the primary school
Week 6 Gendered bodies in school
Week 7 Constructing the teenager
Week 8 Sexuality and schooling
Week 9 Globalisation and gender
Week 10. Teacher Education and leadership
Week 11 Education into employment
Week 12 Conclusion – does gender matter?
Assessment
There are two forms of assessment for this module (assessment guide)
a. A presentation on a relevant journal article. Details of these will be given in the second session when we will also discuss the preparation of these presentations (40% of total mark)
Discuss the content of the article and the way in which the author uses theory (ies) in order to justify their conclusions.
How could you either take this research forward or use an alternative theoretical approach in order to interpret the research?
b. An essay of 2,000- 2,500 words. There will be an opportunity to discuss the essay question in week 7 (60% of total mark)
Submission Monday week 13
Essay title:
Critically examine gender as an organising concept in schools
Module outline
In the first three weeks of the module we discuss theories of gender and their place in academic debate.
Preparatory reading
The reading pack includes the readings that are not available online. All the articles used for the presentations are available online and you should read these as part of your weekly reading so that you can use them to help you write your essay.
Reading packs will be available in week 1.
Week 1 The Gender Question
We will begin by defining the concept of gender and discussing the development of gender as a theoretical perspective.
Many of the debates over gender and education will be familiar to you; the newspapers are forever talking about the ‘Gender Gap’ and voicing concern over ‘underachieving boys’. In the first session we will review that somewhat arbitrary essentialist / constructionist divide and consider how the theory and experience of gender is far more nuanced. We will also think about the notion of ‘critique’ and how it helps us to move beyond the superficial approach and sweeping generalisations so beloved by the media.
The first reading develops some of the ideas introduced in ‘Principles’ in level 4.
Reading: ‘Natural Women and Men’ in R.Alsop, A.Fitzsimons, K.Lennon (2002) Theorising Gender, Cambridge: Polity, pp.12-38.
I do not expect you to have read it by Monday week 1, but it should be read in conjunction with the reading for week 2.
Week 2 Theorising femininity
Carrie Paechter and Diana Fuss critique the idea of gender as socially constructed behaviour based on a sexed body. Initial attempts to move away from essentialist ideas of what is ‘naturally’ female towards gendered behaviour as socially constructed have now developed into a more sophisticated explanation which takes both the social and the physiological into account.
Reading:
Paechter, C. (2006) ‘Reconceptualizing the gendered body: learning and constructing masculinities and femininities in school’, Gender and Education, 18 (2) pp.121-135 (available online)
Fuss, D. (1989) Essentially Speaking, feminism, nature and difference, London: Routledge, pp.1-6, 113-119
Week 3 Theorising masculinity
The second wave feminist movement in the 1960s initiated explorations of what it meant to be female. This was followed by an interest in the social construction of masculinity, or, as Connell notes masculinities. In this session we discuss what is meant by Connell’s notion of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and how that might relate to classroom issues.
Reading
Connell, R.W. (2005) ‘The Social Organisation of Masculinity’ in Masculinities (2nd Edition) Cambridge: Polity, pp.67-86
Moller, M. (2007) ‘Exploiting patterns: a critique of hegemonic masculinity’ Journal of Gender Studies, 16 (3) 263-276 (available online)
Week 4 Barbie and Ken. Creating gendered stereotypes
We glibly talk abut stereotypical boys and girls but what do we mean by the term? In this session we think about how representations of masculinity and femininity are formed and how they then proliferate. What is the relationship between physicality and gender identity?
Reading
Bradley, H. (2007) Gender, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 49-58 ‘What’s it all about?’ being a man in the twenty-first century’.
Pickering, M. (2001) Stereotyping: the politics of representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp.1-21.
Week 5 Gender and the primary school
When do children begin to think of themselves as ‘boys’ or ‘girls’? At what point do children begin to ‘perform’ gender? Francis argues that children’s perceptions of adult behaviour are more gendered than we might expect.
Reading
Francis, B. (1998) Power Plays, Primary School Children's Constructions Of Gender, Power and Adult Work, Stoke-on Trent: Trentham, pp.31-48 Note – this reading is ten years old – how have ideas changed since then?
Week 6 Gendered bodies in school
One of the readings for this week is by a feminist geographer who emphasises the significance of space and the construction of the body. Evans asks why girls who participate in sport outside school are less enthusiastic about physical education lessons within the school environment (in either single sex or co-educational settings). The session raises issues of embodiment and agency in the construction of the gendered identity.
Reading
Evans, B. (2006) I’d feel ashamed: Girls’ Bodies and Sports Participation’, Gender Place and Culture, 13 (5) pp.547-561
Young, I. (2005) ‘Throwing like a girl: A phenomenology of feminine body comportment, motility, and spatiality’, On Female Body Experience (Oxford, Oxford University Press) pp.27-45 – available online through library link http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/private/content/philosophy/9780195161922/p016.html
Additional reading
Connell, Raewyn, (2008) ‘Masculinity construction and sports in boys’ education: a framework for thinking about the issue’ Sport, Education and Society, 13 (2) 131-145 (access online)
Week 7 Constructing the teenager.
It is generally accepted that the teenager as a separate social identity has only existed since about the middle of the last century. Recent research also suggests that teenage brains are indeed different. In this session we think about how the identity of the teenager is affected both by hormones and in the attitude of society to teenage sexual behaviour.
In the second part of the session we consider the role of teenzines in the construction of gender roles
Reading
Kehily, M. J. (2002) Sexuality, Gender and Schooling: shifting agendas in social learning, London: Routledge, pp.99-127 ‘More Sugar? Teenage magazines, gender displays and sexual learning’.
Week 8 Sexuality and schooling
As the need for ‘appropriate’ sex education in schools is frequently a topic of media interest it is clearly integral to the construction of gender roles within formal educational settings. To what extent does the school operate within a heterosexual discourse?
Reading
Mac an Ghaill, M. (1998) The Making of Men; masculinities, sexualities and schooling, Open University: Buckingham, pp.153-169
Chambers, D. van Loon, J. Tincknell, E. (2004) Teachers’ views of teenage sexual morality, British Journal of Sociology of Education 25 (5) pp. 563-576
(online)
Week 9 Globalisation and Gender
In this session we will think about gender theories within their cultural context. In the module we consider theories developed in the United States, Australia and the UK. Do we need to consider where and how theories originate before using them as a critical framework?
Reading
Fennell, S. & Arnot, M. (2008) ‘Decentering hegemonic gender theory: the implications for educational research’ Compare, 38 (5) 525-538
Preece, J. (2002) Feminist perspectives on the learning of citizenship and governance, Compare, 32 (1) 21-33
Week 10 Teacher Education and Leadership
Should gender be part of teacher education courses?
Is gender simply used as a ‘catch all’ term to describe different management styles? How do women and men perceive their leadership roles?
Reading
Younger, M. & Warrington, M. (2008) ‘The gender agenda in primary education in England: fifteen lost years?’ Journal of Education Policy 23 (4) 429-445 (online through library link)
Coleman, M. (2003) Gender and the orthodoxies of leadership. School Leadership and Management, 23 (3) pp. 325-39 (online)
Week 11 Education into employment
In this session we review the relationship between school achievement and success in employment. Is the ‘glass ceiling’ an obsolete concept as girls achieve higher qualifications and women expect to spend most of their working lives in employment?
Reading
Francis, B. & Skelton, C. (2005) Reassessing Gender and Achievement: questioning contemporary key debates, London: Routledge, pp.75-102
Week 12
Conclusions: Does gender matter?
By week 12 it will have become apparent that the way we perform and think gender is so complex as to challenge the significance that we attach to sex/gender differences. To conclude we consider the case of David Reimer and Judith Butler’s discussion of gender as a regime of truth within a Foucauldian framework.
If you have time, read this in advance of week 12. It is a salutary lesson in the lengths that individuals go to, on their own and on other’s behalf in order to conform to ‘the norm’.
Reading
Butler, J. (2004) ‘Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transexuality’ in Undoing Gender, London & New York: Routledge, pp.57-74.
