Taken together : gender differentiation and mixed schooling

Abstract

In this article I want to address some of our commonsense assumptions about the education of girls and boys in single-sex and mixed schools. In Malta there has recently been an interest in co-education. People as different as ex-Labour M.P. Ms Carmen Sant (Sodety, 1991), columnist Daphne on Sunday (STOM, 19 May 1991) and others (including the group of Trade School Heads currently engaged in the Trade School Project) have advocated co-education as a possible solution to gender differences in education I would like to question the wisdom of such assumptions The focus is on the construction of pupils' gender identities in school, looking at both foreign and Maltese mixed infant and primary classrooms. l have made the point elsewhere (Darmanin, 1991) that able Maltese girls in single-sex secondary schools are achieving as well, if not better than their male counterparts. Despite this achievement however, their aspirations for future careers are still. within traditional feminized spheres. Whilst I have also argued (Darmanin, 1992) that the labour market in itself works as a constraint on girls aspirations, this is not to diminish the importance of the school as a site in which gender identities are constructed. Indeed this article is intended to focus our attention on the often hidden though powerful processes that differentiate between girls and boys in mixed schools.