Gender Policy in Australian Schools

Abstract

This paper describes the rise of boys’ education as a substantial social and educational issue in Australia in the 1990s, mapping the changes in Australian discourses on boys’ education in this period. Ideas and authors informed by the men’s movement entered the discourses about boys’ education, contributing to a wave of teacher experimentation and new ways of thinking about gender policies in schools. The author suggests that there is currently a policy impasse, and proposes a new multi-disciplinary approach bringing together academic, practitioner, policy, and public discourses on boys’ education.

Educating Boys in Jamaica: In Search of a New Lens

“…The problem with male students educational underperformance is not unique to Jamaica. In fact, this is a crisis that has gained increased attention in other parts of the world in the last two decades, as nations seek to understand and attempt to find answers as to why male students are under-participating and underachieving in school (Gosse & Arnocky, 2013;Gurian, 2010;Hartman, 2011;Hitchens, 2009;Kleinfeld & Andrews, 2006;Kleinfeld, 2009;Parry, 1997;Viadero, 2006;Whitmire, 2010;Younger & Warrington, 2008). This concern is not limited to underdeveloped, developing and poor countries such as Jamaica.…”

“…The phenomenon of male student under-achievement and underparticipation is global and not exclusive to Jamaica. Many countries over the past two decades have been grappling with an array of academic achievement problems (and their consequences) among their male students (Gosse & Arnocky, 2013;Gurian, 2010;Hartman, 2011;Hitchens, 2009;Kleinfeld, 2009;Kleinfeld & Andrews, 2006;Parry, 1997;Viadero, 2006;Whitmire, 2010;Younger & Warrington, 2008). Gender disparity reports on education highlight that the problem is not limited to poor or developing nations; it is also present in highly developed and affluent countries like the United States, Canada, England, and Australia.…”