Gender sensitive research in schools gender social class

Gender sensitive research in schools: gender, social class, economic wealth, and intersectionality Scottish Universities Insight Institute Glasgow 23 June 2014 Joan Forbes & Gaby Weiner

Seminar Questions 1. What research approaches? 2. Specific ethical issues applying to research 3. What contribution made to social justice and equity 4. Specific [participatory] methodological approaches used for hearing marginalised children’s views 5. What [methodological/research] lessons learnt?

The Scottish Independent Schools Project (SISP) (2006 -08) Ø Ø Ø - Question: How do social and other capitals work in and through independent schools in Scotland? Methodology: case study Methods: Analysis of school histories, magazines & other published documentation; school websites; Observations of classrooms, assemblies, student & staff refectories physical amenities & resources, sports facilities, boarding accommodation [supplemented with field-notes of informal discussions with staff/students in these contexts]; - Interviews with school managers, teaching staff, department heads, heads of PE & directors of sport & one former student. All interviews tape-recorded and transcribed. Focus groups of selected S 2 pupils (13 -14 year olds) Questionnaire completed by whole S 2 cohort in each school. Researcher reflexive questionnaire – separate data collection in 2010 -11 after main empirical study

Schools in project: o Ailsa, urban, single sex (girls), all-age 500 -1000 students. o Brodie, urban, single sex (boys) primary and secondary stages school. 400 - 500 students, largely residential. o Cockburn, small town, all age, co-ed. 1000 – 1500 , mainly day, with c 100 boarders. [Researchers, core of 4]

Framing ideas… q Scottish policy and governance takes little account of the intersectional nature of aspects on in/equality such as the interlocking effects of gender and social class (F, Ö, W 2011). q Gender and other [intersectional]power relations are everywhere q Social structures and relations demand scrutiny and critique (Davies & Banks, 1992). q The research process itself necessitates scrutiny and critique

Key intersectionalities in the project: q Wealth: Average fees (2013) £ 10, 173 pa (day); £ 26, 910 pa (boarding). Extras: uniform, stationery, textbooks, lunch, English language tuition etc. q Exclusivity: 4. 7% of pupil pop. in Scotland attend - in Edinburgh – 25% q Influence : Over 40% of Scottish ‘people of influence’ attended (1990) (Walford). q Internationality: 25% of boarders (2013) from ‘overseas’: viz. Germany 200+, Mainland China c 160; Russia c 80; Hong Kong c 75; elsewhere in Europe c 75; Spain c 70; North America c 27; South Asia c 26; France c 25; Nigeria c 25

Gender & class-based regimes o Ailsa: high aspirations for girls… (O). o Brodie: new men, caring masculinities’ discourse … positioned against … an essentialised discourse of boys needing space to run (M). o Cockburn: much emphasis on examinations, and girls clearly do well, the influential school sports culture clearly favoured the boys (E). (Forbes & Weiner 2014) (Regimes, see Connell 1987)

Reflection: What research approaches? q Website analysis insightful, and generative; likewise open-ended student questionnaire ‘metaphor’ item q Case-study enabled rounded picture to be gained of institutional policies and practices q Post-research reflexive study productive but should have been included in main body of research

Reflection: ethics q Documentation: SERA/BERA guidelines, access contracts with schools which agreed to participate (private institutions); q Access: extent to which ‘powerful researched’ seek to control access, the research process and outcomes o Research relations: between researched and researchers - cut-across by class, status, personal biographies –e. g. final feedback session

Reflection: What contribution made to social justice and equity? o Necessary critique of gender and other norms & assumed practices. ‘What frames our seeing? ’ (knowledge as perspectival, partial, provisional) o Importance of researcher reflexivity re- own self/positioning as researchers in the contexts of knowledge production and nature of the research process – including its power. o Cross –cutting investigation of impact of specific (economic, cultural and social) school [gender] regimes on research process. o Attention to practices that exclude, e. g. fee-charging; exclusive practices - space, time and resources etc…

Reflection: What methodological/ research lessons learnt? o Importance of intersectionalities sensitivity in research: 1. Incorporate conscientisation of gender (and intersectionalities) in research at all stages 2. Investigate hierarchies of power/knowledge on both institutional re/productions and research design, implementation, and writing. 3. Interrogate social orderings of space-time evident in particular power/knowledge relations, i. e. networks, subjectivities, affect, and possibilities for agency. 4. Integrate reflexivity in research design (all aspects)

Reflection: What methodological/ research lessons learnt? o Importance of conscientization Characterised by design of research which is alert to the [inter/sectional] cultural and social determination of gender roles and relationships in research, and the ethicopolitical imperative to strive for greater equality. Cf. Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: NY: Continuum

Reflection: What [methodological/ research] lessons learnt? o Importance of researcher reflexivity Consciously reflexive as researchers - self-aware of positioning and [in this research] how specific socially, culturally and economically-privileged school regimes impact on research process. (Forbes, J. (2008) Reflexivity in Professional Doctoral Research. Reflective Practice, 9. 4, 449 -460)

Reflection: What methodological/ research lessons learnt? Summary q Would we do it the same way again? q What might we have done differently? q Did the project actually do what we wanted? q How did we use intersectionalities – and to what effects e. g. conscious of economic wealth, social class, gender, and ethnicity?

Selected project publications Forbes, J. & Weiner G. (2014) Gender power in elite schools: methodological insights from researcher reflexive accounts. Research Papers in Education, 29. 2, 172 -192. Forbes, J. & Weiner, G. (2013) Gendering/ed research spaces: insights from a study of independent schooling. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26. 4, 455 -469. Forbes, J. , Öhrn, E. & Weiner, G. (2011) Slippage and/or symbolism: Gender, policy and Educational governance in Scotland Sweden. Gender & Education, 23, 761 -776. Forbes & Weiner (2008)Understated powerhouses: Scottish independent schools, their characteristics and their capitals. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 29, 509 Horne, J. Lingard, B. , Weiner, G. & Forbes J. (2011) Capitalizing on sport. . British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32. 6, 861 -879.

References o o o o o Arshad, R. , Forbes, J. & Catts, R. (2007) The role of social capital in Scottish education policy. Scottish Educational Review, 39. 2, 127 Bishop, R. & Glynn, T. (1999) Culture counts: Changing power relations in education. Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press. Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble. New York & London: Routledge. Connell, R. W. (1987) Gender and Power. Cambridge: Polity Press. Davies, B. & Banks, C. (1992) The gender trap: a feminist poststructuralist analysis of primary school children's talk about gender. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 24, 1, 1 -25. Delamont, S. (2009) The only honest thing: Autoethnography, reflexivity and small crises in fieldwork. Ethnography and Education, 4. 1, 51 -63. Gordon, C. (Ed. )(1980) Michel Foucault: Power/knowledge. Selected interviews and other writings 1972 -1977. Brighton: Harvester. Lather, P. (1993) Fertile obsession: validity after poststructuralism. The Sociological Quarterly, 34. 4, 673 -693. Walford, G. (1990) Privitization and Privilege in Education. London: Routledge.

Contact details: j. c. forbes@abdn. ac. uk gaby. weiner@btinternet. com