ABSTRACT
What are the experiences of girls in the classroom? The contemporary concern over ‘boys’ underachievement' in comparison with girls at GCSE level has led many to assume that girls' classroom experiences must now be, like their exam performance, equitable with those of boys. 1 It has even been suggested that the current gendered trends in exam performance show that the equal opportunities initiatives of the 1980s have ‘gone too far’ in empowering girls, and that attention now ought to be brought to bear on improving schooling experience for boys. 2 In fact, however, all the evidence demonstrates that girls' classroom experiences are characterised more by continuity than by change. A review of the literature of the past thirty years on gendered classroom relations reveals little change in three decades in the perceptions applied to girls, girls' classroom behaviour, and girls' experiences (Skelton and Francis 2003). Feminist classroom research in the 1970s and '80s drew attention to the ways in which girls were marginalised in the education system, and systematically belittled and undermined in the mixed-sex school classroom and playground. Education policy, curriculum, interaction with boys, and teacher expectations were shown to impact negatively on girls' self-esteem and schooling experiences. Contemporary research is often more attuned to nuances, contradictions and differences according to ‘race’ and social class than was the case in the 1980s, but in general findings continue to support, rather than refute, the trends in gendered behaviour that were identified in former studies.
