ABSTRACT
Evidence from participant observation indicated a major role for gender in shaping pupils’ daily experiences and anticipated futures, a feature which was confirmed by subsequent questionnaire data and discussions with informants. Beginning with school experiences, it was apparent that gender firmly controlled interactions in the classroom. Friendships were also based around pupils’ own gender which ensured gender-specific clustering both in project or group work and at breaktimes when pupils walked or talked together with ‘their mates’. Girls and boys also made highly gender-specific subject choices at Leafield, in some cases steered by curriculum limitations or teachers’ actions. In terms of actually starting employment or remaining in education, male and female informants entered precisely the types of occupations or training generally associated with their gender. Race as well as gender appeared to be a factor in destinations that whilst white boys were intermittent workers, black girls were the ones who were unemployed.
