Schooling Gender

• In Event: Teachers, Schools, and Adolescents Working Together

Abstract

Gender is a complex and contested social phenomenon. The way youth describe, enact and navigate the gendered messages they receive in schools has been an underdeveloped aspect of the literature on youth and gender. This research explores how youth “do” gender, how they police and regulate the gender performance of themselves and others, and how they navigate gender in school. Utilizing qualitative methodology including participant observation, focus group and individual interviews, and the collection and analysis of school ephemera, this research uncovers how youth “do” gender in a variety of implicit and explicit ways, in multiple micro-and-macro-settings and the fact that the way youth “do” gender is influenced by a number of social scripts about appropriate gender identity and performance.

Author

• Sarah Flett Prior, Arizona State University