Formation of Gendered Identities in the Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine ways in which classroom discourses and practices are implicated in the construction and maintenance of a conventional gender order where each gender is formed as opposite to the other, with male identity ascendant and female identity subordinate. This gender order has been contested and also to some degree changed during the last decades and so have the theoretical understandings of gender and identity. The shifting images of gender in classroom research reflect these changes. The new “what about the boys?” research that appeared in the 90s can be seen, for example, as a major reaction against what was seen to be an unacceptable rise in girls’ educat..