Review of Strategies to Address Gender Inequalities in Scottish ...

management also had an important role to play in highlighting the importance of the issueand giving it legitimacy. Distributed forms of leadership in taking initiatives forwardwere also seen as effective; particularly when such initiatives have the clear publicsupport of the headteacher.In Rudduck’s (1994) study of the development of gender policies in secondary schools, acritical aspect was the tenacity and willingness of gender leaders to sustain the change,and their readiness to think through established and accepted practices and patterns ofbehaviour in school. She noted that some colleagues might be ‘disturbed’ into change.This notion of ‘disturbing’ staff indicates that bringing about change in this area in aschool setting can be problematic. In the first instance, it is necessary to acknowledgethat gender is a problem. Secondly, schools and classrooms are places where routinesexist partly for convenience and partly because this is the means of managing a verycomplex process; any real change will not be brought about by the simple substitution ofone practice for another. Thirdly, the nature of the impact of gender and the conflictingviews held by those involved in schools is undoubtedly controversial. The context andthe potential for conflict were evident in Rudduck’s (1994) study of how secondaryschools develop policies.iii. Monitoring and using dataThe use of evidence can be critical in bringing about change. Davies (1990) advocatesrobust systems to gather and analyse data on gender performance. A similar approach isstressed in the report The Gender Divide (Ofsted and EOC, 1996), where the use ofinformation technology to analyse the data collected within schools is advocated.Initiatives developed in one school cannot be grafted readily on to another school withouta close consideration of the situation as it exists within the school. Staff need to identifypatterns of underachievement and other areas where gender inequalities occur, e.g.exclusions and/or attendance, to determine whether particular pupils are at risk and toidentify the contributory factors (Sukhnandan, 1999; Arnold, 1997). Once specificstrategies have been implemented, monitoring and evaluation is crucial to assess theirimpact in schools (Education Review Office, 2000).It is on the basis of data gathered that school leaders begin to challenge establishedpractices, both within classrooms and around the school, and to initiate change.iv. Understandings of gender and policy makingThe school is a social context and it contributes to the process of socialisation, includingthe formation of gender identity. This needs to be borne in mind when discussing theimplications of specific strategies for the construction of gender in the school. There is atension here. On the one hand there is a need to acknowledge the multiplicity of socialfactors in educational achievement while, at the same time, a need to recognise theimportance of the issue of gender and a need to work towards gender equity practices thatembrace the needs of both male and female pupils.An important aspect of initiating and sustaining change is the development of a deep andmore critical understanding of gender with staff and possibly pupils. Commentators pointto the need for approaches which allow different forms of masculinities to be explored byboys and girls in relation to femininities (MacNaughton, 2000; Skelton, 2001; Frosh et al,2003). A focus on gender relations, and, further, on the relationship of gender to class andethnicity, will enable young people themselves to reflect upon the structures of power intheir own classrooms. Those on the margins, through for example, sexuality or disability,may even be empowered to challenge the disparagement pervading their everydayexperience of school (Renold, 2004).______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 12 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow