GENDER IDENTITY

• Children become keen to demonstrate their awareness and knowledge of gender at the age of five to six
• Seven to eight year olds have a relatively well-established sense of gender identity
• Being accepted as a 'typical boy' or a 'typical girl' tends to be important for children, as their peers tend to 'police themselves' into gendered norms promoted and expecyed
• School is an important arena where children can act out their gender identity and affirm their masculinity or femininity
• There is pressure in school to conform to traditional gender identities
• Male peer groups at Parnell school put boys under pressure to not take school work seriously
• Working class boys see not making an effort as part of being cool and not caring about school work
• Middle class boys pretend to achieve effortlessly in public, even though they try hard behind the scenes
• Not working hard is part of working class masculinity and being seen as not working hard is part of middle class masculinity
• Shaun, a white working class boy, struggled to redefine himself as a hard working pupil when he moved to secondary school
• Female peer groups reinforce traditional femininity
• Girls that don't conform to traditional gender identities are at a disadvantage
• Constructing and performing a heterosexual, sexy feminine image is important for girls
• Girls spend time and money on their appearance to look sexy and feminine, giving them a sense of power and status
• Laddishness among girls is increasing, allowing them to appear carefree about education
• Verbal abuse can reinforce traditional gender identities
• Male pupils use terms like 'gay' or 'queer' in a derogatory manner
• Boys call girls 'slags' or 'drags' based on their behavior, negatively labeling them for being promiscuous or not
• Teachers play a part in reinforcing dominant definitions of gender identity
• Male teachers criticize boys for 'behaving like girls' and tease them for lower marks compared to girls
• Male teachers sometimes display a protective attitude towards female teachers, rescuing them from disruptive pupils
• Teachers' ideas of a 'typical girl' and 'typical boy' influence the feedback they give, with boys receiving more negative feedback
• Tutors are more likely to question male students wanting to do traditionally female subjects
• Gender identities can vary among different ethnic groups
• African Caribbean males are more likely to form anti-school subcultures
• Girls outperform boys in all ethnic groups at GCSE and are more likely to attend university
• Bangladeshi and Pakistani girls are less likely to attend university due to cultural pressure to stay close to home and get married
• Education policies historically reflected dominant gender norms within society
• Historically, education policies tended to disadvantage girls in relation to boys
• Feminism and the 1975 sex discrimination act addressed the underachievement of girls
• Since the 1988 Education Act, there has been more concern with boys' underachievement than girls
• Education policies have traditionally focused exclusively on differences between males and females
• There is a lack of research and explicit policy initiatives to improve the experience of LGBTQ pupils in schools
• In the 19th Century, there was a division between male and female gender roles in society
• Public and grammar schools in the 19th Century were for boys only, while middle class girls were educated at home
• The Education Act 1870 made state education free to all pupils irrespective of gender
• The 1944 Education Act introduced single-sex grammar schools, benefiting boys with more grammar schools
• The 1965 education act abolished single-sex grammar and secondary modern schools, moving towards mixed-sex comprehensive schools
• From the mid-1970s, feminists researched gender inequalities in schools, focusing on girls' underachievement
• Curriculum changes in the 1980s aimed to improve girls' underachievement and their low numbers in science subjects