Gender, young people and schooling: Pathways for challenging gender norms

Gender inequalities are an increasingly high profile societal problem and represents a significant issue within educational institutions. In a wider political context, the recent increasing awareness of the gender pay gap, gender- based discrimination (e.g. #MeToo), and sexism in schools and workplaces demonstrates the importance of my research to challenge the taken-for-granted gender norms which permeate educational discourse in the UK. Therefore, to acknowledge the complexity of gendered identities in young people is important to promote agency, individuality and minimise the negative consequences for young people's mental health. Gender roles and expected behaviours can place significant pressures on young people to conform to these idealised identities. This is particularly significant for young people because the period of adolescence is a transitional time characterised by flux and uncertainty. My PhD research which used physical education (PE) as a lens to view gender inequalities in schools, suggested that there is the potential for negative consequences of gender norms, exacerbated by social comparison in relation to one's embodied appearance. The rise of social media as a significant problem faced by young people (Royal Society for Public Health, 2017) emphasises the need to ensure practitioners and policy-makers understand the specific experiences of young people. In critically examining the gendered experiences of young people within education (and more specifically, PE), my work offers a lens through which interventions and ways of challenging entrenched gender norms can be achieved. Through demonstrating that gender norms often operate at a non-conscious level, my previous research offers the possibility of using this knowledge to challenge and change the experiences of young people, allowing for the possibility of a more inclusive and sensitive school experience for many. A key purpose of this proposed fellowship is to engage practitioners with my research, supported by my own better understanding of pathways to impact in this field, thus encouraging a critical reflexivity and increased awareness of how gender can be problematic for young people in educational fields.

My research therefore addresses these taken-for-granted gender norms influencing how young people interpret their gendered identities, underpinned by a theoretical perspective which utilises the conceptual tools of Pierre Bourdieu. Drawing upon my previous PhD research, this fellowship will allow me to maximise the routes to impact by:
1. Publishing three articles arising from my doctoral research.
2. Completing a small-scale research project (as a form of knowledge exchange activity) to disseminate and
reflect on my PhD research with key stakeholders and decision makers in schools. This element ensures that my doctoral research is fully fed-back to key stakeholders with the intention of challenging schools to address instances of gender inequality.
3. Developing research networks and collaborations, both within the world of academia, with teacher practitioners, and in wider sports/PE networks. These collaborative networks are critical for my own career development in terms of receiving feedback on draft papers/grant proposals and establishing potential future cross-institutional research projects.
4. Developing a project proposal for Leverhulme and/or ESRC New Investigator Grants to continue my research in the context of interventions and strategies to challenge gender norms in practice. This project will be methodologically framed in participatory action research principles to illustrate the impact of interventions designed to challenge the taken-for-granted gender norms in schools.