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

that it was concerned, at least in part, with gender inequality. The schools had runsessions to introduce parents to the story sacks and, in some cases, had run workshops forthem. These were appreciated by all. Some fathers were making the effort to read withtheir children in the evenings as a result of the initiatives. One mother commented on theextent to which the reading sessions had improved the relationship between her husbandand son. Similar sentiments were echoed by other parents. The lack of male role modelsin schools was raised by a small number of parents and one father thought that girls got abetter deal out of the education system, overall, than did boys.Four of the 5 schools had been working with the literacy initiative for 3-5 years and itwas becoming integrated into the day-to-day experiences of pupils. It was generallyregarded by staff as one element of a wider drive to improve literacy standards for bothboys and girls, although some admitted to focusing more explicitly on boys.Most teachers did not see themselves as addressing gender inequalities, but rather assupporting all pupils to develop and achieve as individuals. Teachers encouraged pupilsto become responsible for their own behaviour and their own actions/choices, and todevelop greater independence in, and awareness of, their own learning. Most teacherswere confident in their understandings of gender differences and styles of learning:ability was seen to be a characteristic of individuals rather than boys or girls per se. (Inone school, the pupils themselves reported that boys tend to deal with ability either bytrying not to show it or by bragging about it, whereas able girls were more comfortablewith it.) Although no specific piece of research was cited during visits, many referred tofindings that they had learned about at inservice or staff development sessions, e.g. thatboys like non-fiction and to be active.Individual schools had developed procedures and practices that enhanced the experiencesof both boys and girls, but there was very little sharing of ideas across schools in anysystematic way. Although these schools were working on similar strategies andpriorities, they were unaware of each other. In the nursery, there was no reference to anycommunication with the associated primary schools.Local authority involvement varied considerably. In one authority, the strategy had beendeveloped across all schools and an evaluation of the impact had been undertaken andreported to SEED. In another authority a coordinator provided support and worked withthe staff team to develop practice.The major limitation identified by staff in schools was their inability to reach the pupilsand parents that teachers would most have wanted to take part. There was somedisappointment at the small numbers of parents who attended meetings and regret that theparents of children who might have benefited most did not turn up at all.______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 25 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow