ABSTRACT
Sociologists of education have long established how educational research is highly influenced by the social and political context in which it is produced (Waller, 1967; Raab, 1994). As a result, the research design, the resources made available and the conclusions reached are circumscribed by such a context. This chapter focuses upon a closely connected issue. It concerns the impact of new theories that educational researchers are beginning to draw upon to explain social processes of schooling. The paper explores the methodological implications of these new approaches, in examining the production of sex/ gender identities within school contexts. We place ourselves within the conditions of rapid social and cultural change in the mid-1990s, arguing that it is useful when carrying out research, to hold onto a range of earlier and recently developed theoretical frameworks.
