module specification

Module description:

The module will encourage academic debate around gender issues and gender theory and education as hallmarks of urban education and its theorisation; these debates will emanate from and be stimulated by empirical encounter and the reading of current educational academic research.  It will draw upon formal areas of gender studies, feminist theory, sociology of education, gender philosophy, educational academic research and cultural studies and the theorisation, metaphors and methodologies of enquiry they contribute to the interpretation and understanding of gender in education.

The module aims:

• To enable students to apply theory to interpret research data and contexts
• To explore the impact of gendered- and hetero-normativities in education institutions and practices
• To highlight the historicity of gender within educational discourse and practice
• To examine the relationship between educational and social structures with reference to gender
• To explore methodological approaches to researching gender issues and social transformation across all sectors, including Higher Education
• To develop analytical and interpretive skills around empirical studies into gender studies by reading academic educational research around gender
• To introduce and reinforce the importance of educational research and autobiography in exploring the construction of gender and gendered relations within education

- The first part of the module deals with the notion of gender, gender identities and gender norms as socially constructed and defined by key sociological and philosophical studies around gender. LO1,LO2

- The second part of the module introduces students to prevalent gendered issues in the world of education and schooling, including teaching as a gendered profession and the construction of gendered identities in schooling. LO1,LO2,LO3

- The third part of the module engages and analyses with current academic educational research and empirical studies that extend debates around gender and explore gender issues in education theoretically and empirically. LO3,LO4

The learning on this module is planned and encouraged through engagements with lectures and seminar workshops where students discuss issues introduced in the lecture and also arising from the reading of relevant articles and pieces of educational research. There are online discussion boards introduced in the module which allow students to reflect on the findings from one article, either empirical or theoretical and this activity grounds the skills for the assessment of the module where they are providing and critical summary of articles covered in the module in relation to one theme, issue or debate of their choosing. The seminar workshops therefore blend some of the work and discussions produced in lectures and seminars and students have opportunities to articulate their understanding and interpretations of course materials, debates and readings, as embedded in the course syllabus.

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

• Analyse and locate historical and current educational issues in relation to wider debates in gender studies and other critical theories in education
• Demonstrate and articulate their understanding of gender issues by viewing gender as socially constructed
• Understand the importance of educational research and qualitative methods to explore gender relations and issues of inequality within educational contexts
• Interpret the complexity of gender relations within multi- and inter-disciplinary educational and professional contexts

1. An essay which encourages students to use some of the theoretical and empirical resources used in the syllabus and critically consider debates or issues around gender and education by applying relevant theories, exploring current debates and/or societal issues and using some of the empirical data read in the academic educational research read (LO1,2,3 and 4) – 100%.

Textbooks:

Skelton, C., Francis, B and Smulyan, L. (2006) The Sage Handbook of Gender and Education. London: Sage.

Evans, M., Hemmings, C., Henry, M., Johnstone, H., Madhok, S. Plomien, A. and Wearing, S. (2014) The Sage Handbook of Feminist Theory. London: Sage.

Other books:

Adams, Rachel and D. Savran (eds) (2002) The Masculinity Studies Reader. London: Blackwell.
Arnot, M., and Mac an Ghaill, M. (2007). Gender and Education. Oxon: Routledge.

Bourdieu, P. (2007). Masculine Domination, R. Nice, translator. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Butler, J. (1990) Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.

Butler, J. (2004). Undoing Gender, New York and Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Butler, J. (2006) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.

Connell, R. W. (2012). Masculinities Cambridge: Polity Press.

Epstein, D., and Johnson, R. (1998). Schooling and Sexualities, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ferguson, S. J. (ed.) (2013) Race, gender, sexuality, and social class: dimensions of inequality (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications).

Francis, B., Skelton, C., and Read, B. (2012). The Identities and Practices of High Achieving Pupils: Negotiating Achievement and Peer Cultures, London and New York: Continuum.

hooks, b. (2000) Feminist Theory: From Marging to Center. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Jackson, S and S Scott (2002) Gender: A Sociological Reader. London: Routledge.

Kelan, E. (2009) Performing Gender at Work. London:  Palgrave.

Lawler, S. (2010). Identity Sociological Perspectives, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Leathwood, C., and Read, B. (2009). Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education - A Feminized Future?. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill.

Mendick, H. (2006) Masculinities in Mathematics. Maidenhead: open University Press.

Mirza, H. S. (2009). Race, Gender and Educational Desire: Why Black Women Succeed and Fail, Oxon: Routledge.

Ringrose, J. (2012) Post-feminist education: Girls and the Sexual Politics of Schooling. London Routledge.

Taylor, Y., Hines, S. and  Casey, M. (eds) (2011) Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality. London: Palgrave.

Walkerdine, V., Lucey, H., and Melody, J. (2001). Growing Up Girl: Psychosocial Explorations of Gender and Class, Hampshire: Palgrave.

Wetherell, M., and Mohanty, T., Chandra. (2010), The Sage Handbook of Identities, City: Sage Publications Ltd: London, pp. 540.

Journal Articles:

Baker, J. (2010) Great Expectations and Post Feminist Accountability: Young Women Living Up to the ‘Successful Girls’ Discourse, Gender and Education, (22) 1, pp. 1-15.

Brah, A. and Phoenix. A., (2004) ‘Ain’t I a Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality, Journal of International Women’s Studies, 5 (3).

Drudy, S. (2008) Gender balance/gender bias: the teaching profession and the impact of feminisation, Gender and Education, 20:4, 309-323.

Hall, S., and du Gay, P. (2010). "Questions of Cultural Identity", S. Hall and P. du Gay, (eds.). City: Sage Publications Ltd: London.
Haywood, C. and Mac an Ghaill, M. (2012) What’s Next for Masculinity? Reflexive Directions for Theory and Research on Masculinity and Education, Gender and Education, (24), 5, pp. 577-592.
Hills, L. and Croston, A. (2012) ‘It Should be Better all Together’: Exploring Strategies for Undoing Gender in Coeducational Physical Education, Sport, Education and Society, (17), 5, pp. 591-605.

Hines, Sally (2007) ‘(Trans) Forming Gender: Social Change and Transgender Citizenship’, Sociological Research Online, vol.12, issue 1.

James, J. H. (2010) Teachers as mothers in the elementary classroom: negotiating the needs of self and other, Gender and Education, 22:5, 521-534.

Mac an Ghaill, M, and Haywood, C. (2011) Schooling, Masculinity and Class Analysis Towards an Aesthetic of Subjectivities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32(5), 729-744.

Paechter, C. (2006) Masculine Femininities/Feminine Masculinities: Power, Identities, and Gender, Gender and Education, (18), 3, pp. 253-263.

Pulsford, M. (2014) Constructing men who teach: research into care and gender as productive of the male primary teacher, Gender and Education, 26:3, 215-231.

Renold, E. (2017): ‘Feel what I feel’: making da(r)ta with teen girls for creative activisms on how sexual violence matters, Journal of Gender Studies, DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2017.1296352

Renold, E. (2006) ‘They won’t let us play … unless you’re going out with one of them’: girls, boys and Butler’s ‘heterosexual matrix’ in the primary years, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27:4, 489-509.

Renold, E. and Allan, A. (2006) Bright and Beautiful: High achieving girls, ambivalent femininities, and the feminization of success in the primary school, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 27:4, 457-473.

Ringrose, J. (2007) Successful Girls? Complicating PostFeminist, neoliberal Discourses of Educational Achievement and Gender Equality, Gender and Education, (19), 4, pp. 471-489.

Vogt, F. (2002) A Caring Teacher: Explorations into primary school teachers' professional identity and ethic of care, Gender and Education, 14:3, 251-264.

Walkerdine, V. (2010) Reclassifying Upward Mobility: Femininity and the Neo-Liberal Subject, Gender and Education, (15), 3, pp. 237-248.

Electronic Databases:

Journal of Gender Studies

Journal of Research in Gender Studies

Journal of Gender and Education

Journal of International Women’s Studies

British Educational Research

British Journal of Sociology of Education

The Sociological Review

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

Websites and Social Media Sources:

The Sociological Review - https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/

Gender and Education Association - http://www.genderandeducation.com/

AGENDA - https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/522099-challenging-gender-based-and-sexual-violence