2022

The question of gender within the early childhood education space is one of topical importance for girls’ schools in Australia (Chapman, 2022). Australia also has an increasingly and rapidly growing body of ethnically diverse families and students, including ethnic minorities, voluntary migrants and refugees (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021; Australian…

Simon Briole (2021) from the Paris School of Economics has published an article that considers the gender composition of school cohorts, and how this can affect students’ short- and long-term outcomes. This article is based on educational data from France recorded between 2008-2012. The main outcomes of this research was…

Transgender inclusion has become a prominent topic within education and sports-related policy decisions, yet teachers still face challenges in the education environmental when addressing these concerns. Scarlett Drury, Annette Stride, Olivia Firth and Hayley Fitzgerald from the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, have considered how these challenges are…

Recent research in German schools has found that certain factors influence learned helplessness in students. Learned helplessness has enduring implications for students and can occur in multiple environments and contexts — and, importantly, it is more prevalent in girls. Prevention strategies, such as teacher-student relationships and a sense of belonging are protective but must start early, and the threat of exclusion can interfere with their efficacy.

An international review found that cultural perceptions, economic and institutional resources and sources of information influenced the experience of menstruation and management. Many young girls still experience shame and secrecy around the concept of menstruation and research confirmed that ‘developed’ nations like Australia are not immune to the shame and taboo that surrounds menstruation.

Recent research by UK-based researchers explored the impact of parent and carer’s attitudes and beliefs on children’s participation in physics. While no causal relationship between ‘parental attitudes and student outcomes’ was found, the authors did conclude that parent beliefs about their child’s likeliness to get a Physics A-level or work in a physics-related field has the potential to impact girls’ self-concept.

Sweden has been recognised for its high levels of gender equity, but still has highly segregated labour markets. This same attitude is reflected in university level education, but these findings indicate that attitudes towards mathematics in lower secondary are less gendered. This case study seeks to better understand how gendered conceptions of mathematics-related employment develop.

Schuster et al. (2022) found that educators’ gender stereotypes led to a stereotype-contrasting grading bias. If gender bias was present, markers compensated by being more generous, leading to discrepancies in the consistency of teacher judgement.

Chapman (2022) draws on feminist post-structuralism and queer theory to “examine Australian early childhood educators’ views on children’s gender identity development, and the content on gender in the Australian Government’s Early Years Learning Framework”.