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

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iv.The impactIn the case studies section of this report, each is discussed in relation to these elementsand the issues raised in the literature.______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 16 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow
CHAPTER THREE SURVEY OF LOCAL AUTHORITIESThe case study schools and authorities were identified through a brief survey, using aquestionnaire approach. Questionnaires were issued to 31 of the 32 local authorities(Appendix 1); only one authority declined the invitation to participate. While addressedto Directors of Education, or their equivalent, the covering letter asked that thequestionnaire be completed by whoever held responsibility for equity issues within thedirectorate. (The term ‘gender (in)equality’ was used for the sake of brevity, although itwas acknowledged that other terms might be used by authorities to reflect similarconcepts.)In the event, 25 of the original 32 were completed and returned (78%), most of whichwere completed by advisers or education officers whose remit included equity issues. Asthe numbers are relatively small, the actual figures are reported here.The purpose of the questionnaires was to determine the local authority’s approach togender inequalities issues and to identify potential case study schools, i.e. examples ofgood practice of specific gender-related strategies in operation. Authorities were alsoasked, where appropriate, to provide relevant documentation, such as policy statements,to the project team. Several respondents appeared to have had difficulty completingsome of the questions on the grounds that ‘gender’ has become part of a more generalinclusion policy and therefore difficult to separate out from other initiatives. A total of18 local authorities identified examples of where strategies had been developed(Appendix 2).3.1 Policy and planningNine of the respondents indicated that their authority had a written policy statement ongender (in)equality, 13 said it did not and 2 reported that a draft policy statement existed.Of the 9 with policy statements, 1 covered education establishments only, while 8covered all aspects of policy provision. Fourteen of the 25 reported that the authority’sImprovement Plan made reference to gender issues in schools.One question asked whether the authority would expect schools to have a written policyon gender (in)equality, regardless of whether a policy statement existed at authority level.Seven said that they would, while another 7 indicated they would not; the remainder didnot answer. They were then asked to estimate the percentages of educationalestablishments in each sector (pre-5, primary, secondary and special) that they thoughthad a policy, whether it was a requirement or not. Expectations varied from none to100% of all establishments. For example, 5 authorities expected 100% of establishmentsin all 4 sectors to have policies in place. Another authority expected 100% of allestablishments other than pre-5 to have a policy in place, while 2 other authoritiesexpected 100% of pre-5 establishments and between 50% and 80% of the others to haveone in place. It should be noted, however, that the documentation supplied by authoritiesdid not normally match the reported incidence of policies and practices (see Section 3.2).Authorities were asked to indicate, broadly, the nature of the policy for gender in schoolswithin their authority. Twenty authorities replied, all indicating that it was either anintegral part of the inclusion policy, permeated other policies or was a combination ofthese. No authority indicated that they had a stand-alone policy for gender. Commentsincluded:• Not necessarily a stand-alone policy on gender but all schools have an equalitypolicy.______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 17 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSEXECUTIVE S
Page 5 and 6: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIntroductionThe Re
Page 7 and 8: Staff and management in most school
Page 9 and 10: 6. Management and whole school pers
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER ONE THE STUDYRecent researc
Page 13 and 14: CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF THE LITERATUR
Page 15 and 16: 2.3 Causes of gender inequalityA ra
Page 17 and 18: Archer and Yamashita (2003) argue t
Page 19 and 20: ii. Assessment practicesNational mo
Page 21 and 22: Further efforts to ensure ‘effect
Page 23 and 24: Skelton (2001) argues that the basi
Page 25: were still highly gendered. Further
Page 29 and 30: curriculum structures and lifelong
Page 31 and 32: ‘Getting the best out of Boys’
Page 33 and 34: 4.2 Early literacyLiteracy, or, mor
Page 35 and 36: that it was concerned, at least in
Page 37 and 38: 4.3 Self-concept and esteemA number
Page 39 and 40: to the boys, animal print designs a
Page 41 and 42: parents and what they wanted. Overa
Page 43 and 44: was a thrust in the policy towards
Page 45 and 46: School 1In the first school, non-de
Page 47 and 48: For pupils, there were some common
Page 49 and 50: Staff interviewed thought that a pa
Page 51 and 52: The initiative had not been evaluat
Page 53 and 54: indicated that he believed there wa
Page 55 and 56: CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSIONThe review o
Page 57 and 58: Pupils were particularly aware of g
Page 59 and 60: differences in the ways that boys a
Page 61 and 62: Burn, E (2001) Do boys need male pr
Page 63 and 64: Lloyd, G (ed.) (2005) Problem Girls
Page 65 and 66: Rowe, K, Nix, PJ and Tepper, G (199
Page 67 and 68: APPENDIX 1 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LOCAL
Page 69 and 70: 6. Would you expect any written pol
Page 71 and 72: C. Strategies to address gender ine
Page 73 and 74: Local authority161718Strategy/Area
Page 75 and 76: Focus group schedule: pupilsThe the
Page 77 and 78:
4. ImpactHas the project made any d
Page 79 and 80:
Policy origin of the initiativeLoca
Page 81 and 82:
Relationship with other strategiesE
Page 83 and 84:
Section 4Focus Group - ParentsGener
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