Everyday life in today's schools : the female pupils' experiences

Abstract

On November 1st 1991 The Times Educational Supplement published a letter from a school governor querying the activities of the headmistress of a primary school. Among the problems was: Finally, we had put in our behavior guidelines that no punishment should be embarrassing to the child. Now we've heard that she's made girls wear boys' caps if they're caught fighting. If this disciplinary strategy has been accurately reported, the gender stereotyping is marked. Not only does the school have uniform, with different headgear for boys and girls, but fighting is seen as a 'male' pastime, and discipline is partially based on shaming one sex by comparing them to the other. Managing boys by comparing them unfavourably with girls, or llice IJersa, were common control strategies in British middle and comprehensive schools in the late 1970s (see Delamont, 1990, p. 29 and p.59) and in lessons for slow learners in some Welsh comprehensives in the mid 1980s (Delamont, 1990 p.60) but to hear of them thriving in 1991 is a shock. This paper examines what is known about everyday life in British schools as it is experienced by female pupils, drawing on the research done in the last twenty-five years. There are five sections, on the research background, on teacher-pupil relationships, on same sex pupil relationships, on male-female pupil relationships, on myths and fantasies, and on an agenda for future research.