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8. A whole school perspective

This section considers evidence of the need for a whole school perspective on addressing gender inequalities, with a specific focus in some key areas.

A key question is: how, within the organisational context of a school, can change bringing about gender equity be introduced and sustained? Some work has been undertaken in the area of school-wide issues and strategies. The following themes are highlighted:

i. gender, school effectiveness and school improvement
ii. managing change
iii. monitoring and using data
iv. understandings of gender and policy making
v. policy making
vi. role models
vii. mentoring
viii. school ethos and participation in development.

i. Gender, school effectiveness and school improvement

The management of schools in Scotland is framed within the school effectiveness and improvement agenda. Perhaps one of the most remarkable features of the substantial range of school effectiveness research is the lack of attention to the issue of gender in relation to the features of effectiveness (Duffield, 2000). The question of 'school mix', that is, social class, has been a consideration largely in methodological terms to ensure the validity of comparative data in assessing effectiveness. However, one of criticisms of the school effectiveness and school improvement movements has been the lack of attention to equality issues. For example, Rea and Weiner (1996) are critical of school effectiveness research upon which policies about school evaluation are based because gender, along with other social factors, is rendered invisible. Nevertheless, they do see some potential in this research:

However, we also suggest that certain aspects of school effectiveness could be of immense use to institutions such as our own [schools and HEIs alike]. For example, we need to regain the notion of 'value added' as a diagnostic tool by which teachers and educational institutions are able to identify and improve weaknesses and build on strengths - rather than as a means of pathologising urban education.

We can look to the generic processes of managing change and improvement as a means of promoting gender equity particularly those features identified in school improvement literature such as leadership, shared vision and values (and) collegiality. Rea and Weiner (1996: 30-31)

ii. Managing change

Myers (2000), in reviewing the range of national and local initiatives in relation to gender since the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1975, stresses the importance of drawing from understanding about the management of change in bringing about greater gender equality. Generic processes are the basis for bringing about change and improvement including: leadership; staff development to raise awareness and to review and develop classroom practices; policy making; and, monitoring and evaluation.

Wyatt et al (1996: 233) put forward a working model for gender and change in which there are a number of key components:

• the source and purpose of the proposed change is clearly discussed, data is used to support the case for change and practical strategies as ways forward are highlighted
• recognition of the values base of the proposals and work towards exploration of values, attitudes and expectations with all concerned
• teachers as learners with support strategies developing a collegiate approach. Existing strengths and good practice are built upon, success is recorded and celebrated
• management processes are used to plan, implement and support the changes and time is available for monitoring, development and reflection.

Leadership, as a critical factor relating to the status of the individual in the school structure, is important. Ofsted and the EOC (1996) found that schools successful in providing equal opportunities for both boys and girls were characterised by a headteacher with strong commitment to developing equal opportunities initiatives. However, though senior management has an important role to play in highlighting the importance of the issue and giving it legitimacy, distributed forms of leadership in taking initiatives forward are also seen as effective, particularly when such initiatives have the clear public support of the headteacher. In Rudduck's (1994) study of the development of gender policies in secondary schools, a critical aspect was the role of the 'gender leaders' tenacity and willingness to sustain the change, and their readiness to think through established and accepted practices and patterns of behaviour in school. Taking the initiatives forward rested on good management practice in relation to:

• pace of change,
• effective communication to keep all informed and
• determining tactics appropriate to the context: either an incremental approach building up support and moving with the majority to marginalise opposition, or issuing a public challenge on the issue of gender equity to 'disturb' colleagues into change.

This notion of 'disturbing' staff indicates that bringing about change in this area in a school setting can be problematic. Among the issues that need to be faced in pursuing change in relation to gender is, firstly, the acknowledgement that the issue of gender is a problem: a teacher's focus on helping each individual achieve her/his potential often overlooks the significance of gender in learning and this needs to be challenged. Secondly, schools and classrooms are places where routines exist partly for convenience and partly because this is the means of managing a very complex process and thus any change is not a simple substitution of one practice for another. Thirdly, the nature of the impact of gender and the conflicting views held by those involved in schools is undoubtedly controversial. The context and the potential for conflict were evident in Rudduck's (1994: 54) study of policy development in secondary schools:

In none of the schools whose work is reported here were the first steps towards a whole-school gender policy taken from a position of steady confidence but rather from a spirit of commitment and determination sharpened by a sense of potential vulnerability. The involvement and support of a genuinely concerned senior management team seems, in the end, to be a determining factor in the successful development of whole-school policy and practice.

Staff awareness of the issue of gender and achievement through staff development is a critical step, and in Rudduck's case studies staff development events were given a high profile and well resourced, with the aim of ensuring these were positive experiences for staff.

Of importance also was the need to ensure that initiatives promoted at whole school level were taken up at department level. Thus '...an early move was the requirement that all departments produce their own equal opportunities statement, following departmental discussion, together with an action plan which indicated which priorities for development' (Rudduck: 1994: 98).

iii. Monitoring and using data

Another critical aspect in bringing about change is the use of evidence. Davies' (1990) advice on policy making in relation to issues of equality advocates strong systems to gather and analyse data on gender performance. A similar approach is stressed in the report, The Gender Divide (Ofsted and EOC, 1996: 8):

Governors and headteachers can monitor the standards achieved in each area of the curriculum in order to identify patterns of different achievement by girls and boys. They can attempt to identify factors leading to changes from year to year, and trace trends over several years. IT-assisted analysis is a beneficial tool which secondary schools can use.

School staff cannot graft on initiatives used elsewhere, however, without a close consideration of the situation with regard to gender equity as it exists within their school.

There is a need to analyse data so that school staff can:

• identify patterns of underachievement
• consider other areas where gender differences occur, e.g. exclusions, attendance
• target pupils at risk and
• isolate the factors which contribute to gender differences (Sukhnandan, 1999; Arnold, 1997).

Once specific strategies have been implemented, monitoring and evaluation is crucial to assess impact in schools (Education Review Office, 2000).

Some of Arnold's (1997) examples of schools that have gathered data on gender and performance indicate that this has not been limited to year-by-year assessment data. Rather, several approaches to spotting patterns of gender differentiation are in evidence, including:

• using data gathered through a longitudinal study of assessment data to look at relative performance
• using data on rate of exclusions and attendance (Sukhnandan, 1999)
• gathering examples of pupils' work and auditing teacher assessments
• examining setting arrangements and gender balance within them
• boys' and girls' participation in extra-curricular activities
• observing lessons
• recording information by gender from departments
• internal surveys and audits on gender issues within departments
• gathering information from pupils
• gathering parents' views.

It is on the basis of such data that school leaders begin to challenge established practices, both within classrooms and around the school, and initiate change.

iv. Understandings of gender and policy making

In the discussion about teaching and learning, and also classroom organisation, one of the critical issues highlighted was the implication of specific strategies for the construction of gender in the school. We have to bear in mind that the school is a social context and it contributes to the process of socialisation, including the formation of gender identity.

There is a difficult balancing act here. On the one hand there is a need to acknowledge the multiplicity of social factors in educational achievement. At the same time there is a need to recognise the importance of the issue of gender and the task of working towards gender equity which embraces the needs of both male and female pupils in school. Although it is acknowledged that gender is one of a number of factors that need to be considered in relation to learning and achievement, it is argued that there is still a need to focus on it specifically at all levels in the educational system.

Therefore, an important aspect of initiating and sustaining change in schools is the development of a deep and more critical understanding of gender with staff and possibly pupils. Commentators offering an equitable way forward for schools (such as McNaughton, 2000; Skelton, 2001; and Frosh et al, 2003), point to the need for approaches which allow different forms of masculinities to be explored by boys and girls in relation to femininities. A focus on gender relations and, further, on the relationship of gender to class and ethnicity, should enable young people themselves to reflect upon the structures of power in their own classrooms. Those on the margins through, for example, sexuality or disability, may even be empowered to challenge the disparagement pervading their everyday experience of school. Renold (2004) comments:

…schools and school policies need to pay equal attention to the margins and to the centre. Exploring (especially with children themselves) how they are interconnected...may well go some way to disrupting the power relations that constitute the gendered hegemonic matrix that all children (boys and girls) negotiate on a daily basis within and beyond the school gates. (Renold, 2004: 262)

As Skelton (2001) argues, the question of the basis upon which schools should be developing policies in relation to gender equity is crucial. She puts forward four key questions which can form the basis of staff and pupil discussion about the values underpinning a policy on gender equity:

• What images of masculinity and femininity are the children bringing with them into school and what types are they acting out in the classroom and the playground?
• What are the dominant images of masculinity and femininity that the school itself reflects to the children?
• What kinds of role models does the school want and expect of its teachers?
• What kind of initiatives/strategies/projects should teachers be undertaking with children to question gender categories? (Skelton, 2001:175).

v. Policy making

The relationship between school policy and everyday practice in the classroom is a critical one in bringing about genuine change. Rudduck (1994) identifies three levels of commitment as a framework for the development of a policy making process which brings about change in the classroom:

• heightened awareness through the production of guidelines for class teachers and promoted staff
• organisational coherence: policy development that is the basis of practice and the monitoring process
• analytical coherence: where there is a clear sense of the values basis of policy development and its link to wider purposes of education and society.

In this context, analytical coherence

…has something to do with defining of 'more self conscious social and political objectives'. It is about recognising something of the social and economic foundations of gender inequalities. It means looking beyond the short-term successes and understanding the tight weave of structures that hold inequality in place. Such understanding is not easy to achieve. (Rudduck, 1994:122)

Rudduck here highlights the importance at a policy level of examining the underpinning values. Hill and Cole (1999) make a distinction between equal opportunities policies and egalitarian policies. Whereas equal opportunities policies are based on a meritocratic idea where 'able pupils' are allowed the opportunity to achieve and gain from this in a stratified society, egalitarian policies are designed to challenge structured inequalities. This distinction is not necessarily clear in policies and there is a tension between enabling able pupils to overcome social barriers (such as gender, social class, poverty, ethnicity) in order to achieve through the school system and policies that emphasise achievement for all.

A critical step in the policy making process, then, is the discussion and debate among staff and other stakeholders of the significance of gender, equality and inclusive education.

Corson (1998: 17) argues for critical policy making. Corson proposes a process of genuine participative policy development which includes not just staff (which was the predominant model in Rudduck's case studies) but also pupils, parents and members of the wider community. The steps of the process are as follows:

• identifying the real problem(s)
• trialling policies: the views of the stakeholders: through dialogue working out trial solutions in response to the problem
• testing policies against the views of participants: using critical dialogue, they undertake small-scale research of several types to trail and gather information on the trial proposals
• policy implementation and evaluation: the conclusion to policy making is when the solution does address the concerns and issues raised by those involved, and ongoing evaluation allows for changes and modification as matters evolve. (Corson, 1998: 17)

The process of policy making can become the tool for fundamental change. However, sitting side by side with a policy has to be a range of strategies and initiatives that are undertaken in a coherent way to support the implementation of whole school policy and to bring about the anticipated change in practice as a result of agreement. In so doing, school leaders (with staff and other stakeholders such as pupils and parents) have to identify goals, co-ordinate activities and resources in a focused way and gather data to monitor and evaluate progress. The work by Traves (2000, quoted in Baxter, 2001) a primary headteacher, in tackling the issue of gender and literacy achievement, is a good illustration of this. He established a range of structures and practices as part of a co-ordinated programme on literacy through which the existing differences in gender-related performance levels were to be tackled.

This programme illustrates the need to involve a range of people, to target specific areas and to provide the necessary resources, including staff deployment. The project strategy included:

• a literacy team that met at regular intervals to discuss the needs of each class, to allocate teaching and support staff, and to monitor and evaluate initiatives in progress. This included monitoring the range and balance of reading experiences children encountered ( e.g. so that boys read a broader range of genres than those they might prefer; so that both boys and girls experienced a balance of ownership of their reading and teacher guidance
• offering differentiated types of support to readers by tight target setting, monitoring and assessing of all pupils
• support and classroom assistant time allocated to those who need one-to-one help, including disaffected or disinterested boy readers
• use of Reading Recovery trained teachers
• involvement of parents and families. Certain schemes ( e.g. home-school partnerships: localised initiatives such as 'Dads and Lads' reading project; Storysacks) encouraged parents, and particularly fathers, to take an active interest in their children's reading development
• training for parents: 'hands-on' workshops to infant children's parents and carers to give them strategies for supporting children's reading
• promoting reading culture around the school. Books were displayed and posters might easily display male and female authors as well as boy and girl readers. Success in reading should be celebrated as much for boys as girls in whole school contexts such as assembly
• seeing men as readers. Opportunities were created to have male role models … read aloud in front of the whole class or lead reading sessions with a class or group
• pairing readers: schemes like Buddies where older pupils read alongside younger pupils or enthusiastic readers were paired with more reluctant readers, are likely to motivate boys (p14).

The processes mapped out by Rudduck (1994) and Corson (1998) fall into one of two broad models of managing initiatives for change in relation to gender in school, i.e. the development of a whole school policy which lays out a range of strategies and initiatives.

An alternative model is to adopt an inquiry-based model of managing change. Here, data analysis and monitoring provide the evidence which becomes the starting point of an inquiry-based approach to change. The literature contains a number of such studies in relation to gender as well as others that aim to bring about change in relation to other social factors under the broad framework of inclusion. For example, Dyson et al (2002), in a study looking at the development of strategies for inclusion, argue that schools can and should be enabled to mark out space to be able to take forward initiatives based upon whole school inquiry methods to bring about change. The culture and processes for change within the school were crucial.

A small scale study by Wikely and Jamieson (1996) is a good illustration of school-based action using investigative techniques to indicate that gender difference in performance is an issue that can be affected by internal school policy and practice. This approach also helps to acknowledge that there is a complex range of environmental and other factors that also come into play. Here the approach adopted inquiry-based methods underpinning change projects similar to those advocated by Corson (1998), that is gathering views from both pupils and staff and using these to develop strategies to tackle issues.

vi. Role models

One of the areas of gender imbalance within schools relates to teaching staff, or to be more precise, to the increasing female domination of the profession. The issue of lack of role models in management and in traditional male areas such as science was used as the basic argument for initiatives such as Women into Management and Girls into Science and Technology ( GIST). Is there now a case for the recruitment of more men into schools?

Recent efforts though by the TTA have focused on the recruitment of men into teaching, especially into primary schools, and these have been criticised for reinforcing gender stereotypes (Burn, 2001, Pepperell and Smedley 1998). The desirability of increasing male recruitment into primary teaching on the grounds of wider societal equality is recognised - but claims that the recruitment of men or people from ethnic minority groups will improve performance are challenged. We should be wary of adopting crude ideas of 'boy friendly' schooling such as the numerical presence of male teachers and the use of boys' culture (Carrington and Skelton, 2003; Ashley, 2002). Ashley's study demonstrated that boys lay greater emphasis on the qualities, rather than the gender, of the teacher.

Notwithstanding concerns over the simplistic claims that there is a need to recruit more men into the teaching profession, the role of male teachers working with boys on gender issues is discussed. There is a need to involve boys in discussions about gender and about masculinity. Mills (2000) argues that the approach where male teachers work with boys constitutes part of the process of men addressing 'the privileged position in which they are situated in gendered relations of power'. Mills (2000: 222) argues that it is not about empowerment of 'boys as boys' (italics in original), but about a consideration of power dynamics. Drawing from Denborough (1995 and 1996), Mills argues that for this to work a more desirable, respectful approach is necessary:

A respectful pedagogical approach to these issues does not mean that teachers should not try to provide alternative ways of reading existing relations of power. A socially just approach to the education of boys cannot ignore the privileges which boys accrue as a result of being male, and the behaviours which are implemented in order to shore resistance to any challenges to those privileges. However, it must also recognise that the problem of gender and violence is not a pathological one but a systemic-structural problem. (Mills, 200: 235)

vii. Mentoring

At school level, mentoring is an initiative suggested as the means to deal particularly with boys' underachievement. Different patterns can be found: the use of peer counselling (Ryder, 1998), reading buddies (Noble, 1998) subject specific support (Penny, 1998). Different strategies were also found by Sukhnandan et al (2000) in their survey. A number of reasons were found for schools adopting mentoring. These included the targeting of specific pupils, usually underachieving boys, with a focus on increasing motivation and confidence, and to support pupils on the borderline in terms of predicted examination results. A number of positive outcomes from mentoring schemes were found by Sukhanandan et al (2000);

• for boys there were benefits in having help in organising their learning and dealing with issues such as study habits, timetables
• for girls it was a source of support in developing strategies to deal with pressure
• the one-to-one attention provided support in relation to self-esteem and motivation and challenged anti-learning subcultures which some teachers felt were prevalent among boys
• for both boys and girls, mentoring could be linked to target setting and a range of targets could be covered, including study skills, academic guidance, attendance and punctuality.

Sukhnandan et al found there were limitations, particularly time and the availability of enough trained mentors. In some schools this meant there was only a limited participation by some pupils, largely boys, thus excluding girls from what could be a valuable source of support. Further, Younger, Warrington et al (2005) found that

'individual approaches, based on a coherent and integrated approach to target setting and mentoring, were very important in some schools in transforming and sustaining improvements in achievement'.

viii. School ethos and participation in development

Another issue relating to the whole school context is that of school culture and ethos. In Scotland, the School Ethos Network has been active in promoting the development of whole school strategies to establish and enhance a positive ethos, strategies to promote positive behaviour and to create greater pupil participation in the community life and decision making processes of school. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the significant range of case studies (Munn, 1999; Murray and Closs, 2000; Murray, 2002) is the limited focus on gender in the accounts.

Arnold's (1997) survey of English initiatives points to a different aspect of school ethos and gender. A consistent theme in many of the examples provided is the involvement of pupils and parents, both in gathering evidence and in discussing policy development around the issue of gender. Among the strategies highlighted are the use of:

• questionnaires at the outset to gather pupil views to identify the issues and help shape initiatives
• pupil questionnaires to monitor the progress and impact of initiatives
• individual and group interviews to raise the profile of gender issues and again to help shape initiatives.

Parents, too, were seen as having an important role to play, both in supporting boys' learning and in contributing to public activities to raise the profile of gender. Strategies adopted by schools included:

• overtly raising the issue of boys' underachievement with parents
• holding a parents' evenings seminar on the issue of gender
• encouraging parents' involvement in school activities
• gathering views and suggestions from parents
• providing suggestions to parents, particularly in relation to boys' work habits.

To summarise:

A way forward may be provided by change management processes involving a complex range of strategies including:

i. the identification of issues and problems specific to the school by gathering a variety of data, including the views of stakeholders
ii. the use of strategies to raise staff awareness
iii. the development of specific teaching skills to address issues of gender inequality in the classroomiv. the use of public events to raise interest
v. the involvement of all stakeholders in discussion
vi. the use of monitoring to sustain and enhance progress.

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