ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the long view to discuss how ideas of gender, culture and power intersect in educational thought, policy, and practice. Looking at the rise of the schooled child after 1870, it combines a discussion of the historically greater freedom and opportunities of a boy’s life with an analysis that challenges a cultural script of social mobility based on the principle of meritocracy that rewards independent qualities of ‘ability’ and ‘effort’. Organised chronologically, the chapter discusses the gendering of school knowledge, stereotyping, discipline, behaviour and the culture of performativity; alongside revelations that ‘rape culture’ is thriving in British schools today. Building on developments within feminist and pro-feminist work, it links developments within ‘gender gap’ debates and their rhetoric to the wider struggle for an effective comprehensive education system based on the belief that all children are equally important and should be given a fair chance in our society.
