Gender stereotypes established early in childhood have a profound impact on a child's sense of self-definition: they commonly influence behaviours regarding academic pursuit and career aspirations. The aim of the current study was to investigate the emergence of explicit and implicit gender stereotypes in children aged 5-8 years. Fifty-four…

Gender stereotypes are often an unconscious notion, which can unjustly confine individuals' pathways to that of those deemed acceptable in society. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore whether such ideals are shown by primary school students' and their teachers. Results showed that gender stereotypes were present, with both students…

Throughout the United Kingdom's (UK's) primary science curriculum, there are numerous opportunities for teachers to use the farming industry as a rich and engaging real-world context for science learning. Teachers can focus on the animals and plants on the farm as subjects for children to learn about life processes. They can turn attention…

This paper investigates forest school practitioners perceptions of learning at forest school to identify the topics covered, the learning styles, and the philosophies underpinning its delivery, based on interviews with experienced forest school practitioners. Practitioners identified the focus of learning at forest school as social development:…

This Research Briefing analyses Office for National Statistics data and finds children from the most advantaged households benefit from significantly more spending on extra-curricular activities and private tutoring than their poorer peers. The brief also includes the Trust's annual polling on private tuition and new polling on parents and…

The teaching profession's response to the inexorable march of new technology into education has been a focus of research for some 30 years. Linked with the impact of ICT on measurable performance outcomes, teacher attitudes to technology and the impact on pedagogic practice have been central to that research, a research that has often seen…

As the largest public sector institution in the United Kingdom, education is a key site for studying the context of "choice" and changes in the identities of professional workers in contemporary society. Recruitment and retention problems in education have led to the creation of new routes into teaching to attract career changers from…

For several years now a number of countries have been attempting to increase their numbers of male primary teachers, yet have met with little success. Feminists/pro-feminists have challenged the intentions of these male teacher recruitment drives but failed to offer any interventions that might contribute to a broadening of the primary teacher…

Notwithstanding over 20 years of propaganda promoting board school teaching as an ideal career for upper-class women, it appears that in the 1890s it was still unusual for "girls of good family" to go in for it. Therefore, it was an eccentric plunge in 1898 when Eglantyne Jebb, an Oxford student from a prosperous land-owning family,…

This paper addresses issues of identity among trainee teachers as they progress through college in to their first year of teaching mathematics in primary schools. We examine how we might conceive of the trainees confronting mathematics in the context of government policy instruments. We suggest that teacher identity be produced at the intersection…

Boys' underachievement has to some extent been attributed to the feminisation of the teaching profession. The authors understand the concept of feminisation to mean in the first instance an increase in the number of women teachers in primary schools as a proportion of the total work force. The evidence the authors have for this pragmatic…