ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the attitudes of teachers involved in the Girls into Science and Technology (GIST) project, their increasing awareness of the issue, and of the possible sources of girls' underachievement in science and technology. Teachers' attitudes were studied in two ways. First, after each visit to a school it made notes on what had happened, including comments on the teachers' responses. Second, it invited a team of independent evaluators – three male sociologists from the School of Education, Manchester Polytechnic – to talk to the teachers about their impressions of GIST and to assess the way their opinions and classroom practices had altered. The two main sources of evidence for the teachers' response to GIST, first, that in spite of the 'softly, softly' approach the team were clearly perceived as feminist-inspired, albeit 'level-headed' and professional in conduct. Second, teachers' responses varied according to their age, their sex, their status and the subject they taught in the school.
