The NSPCC recently released our report ‘A qualitative study of children, young people and ‘sexting’. The report is based on qualitative, school based research conducted by myself (Jessica Ringrose, Institute of Education London), Rosalind Gill (Kings College London), Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics) and Laura Harvey (Open University). Continue reading “SEXTING: What is it and why is it an issue of gender equality relevant for an educational audience?”
Fame, Folk devils and Generation X-Factor
In recent months a number of articles have appeared in the UK national press, reporting renewed concerns about the impact of celebrity and consumer culture on young people’s aspirations. Celebrity culture features in these as a contemporary folk devil, conjured up as the source of various societal ills, and diverting attention from the structural causes of inequality. Continue reading “Fame, Folk devils and Generation X-Factor”
BY GOVE: BACK TO THE FUTURE: EDUCATION CIRCA 1962!
GEA Policy Officer’s Report, 2012
Continue reading “BY GOVE: BACK TO THE FUTURE: EDUCATION CIRCA 1962!”
Making Space for Queer Identifying Religious Youth (2011-2013)
When you think of religion, do you then think of sexuality? Does the connection then become a drastic dis-connection, a sentiment of incompatibility and impossibility, as the mind wanders over abortion debates, family planning, and the ‘sins’ of homosexuality? These collisions are apparent in recent UK debates on the Civil Partnership Act (2004), The Equality Act (2006) and the proposed Con-Lib plans to legalize gay marriage by 2015. All have generated significant controversies, frequently positing Christian ‘backlash’ against more integrative calls for inclusion. Representations of ‘sexual citizenship’ are still positioned as separate from and indeed negated by religious rights and some religions are (mis)positioned as more hostile, tolerating and welcoming than others. Sweeping claims are made about the representation of broader secular publics where some suggest that ‘Religious Leaders are out of Touch with Sexuality Issues’. Over time policy-makers and the media have variously positioned religious leaders and communities as (un)wise and (in)competent citizens; with – or without – the capabilities and connectedness to contemporary British publics. The voices of those most vocal are heard here, where gaps exist between prescription and practice and between official institutional stances – in being in or out of touch – and what is experienced on the ground at congregational level. Against this often highly intense social context young LGBT Christians try to find a sense of belonging and identification, which Making Space for Queer Identifying Religions Youth (ESRC, 2011-2013) focuses upon. Starting with a focus on the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), the project offers insight into the management and development of excluded and in some ways ‘contradictory’ identity positions. How might religion and sexuality serve as a vehicle for various forms of belonging, identification and political expression where these have been pitted against one another? Continue reading “Making Space for Queer Identifying Religious Youth (2011-2013)”
Selling Science as ‘a Girl Thing’
When the EU launched a short viral video to publicise their It’s a Girl Thing! campaign to get more women into science, it all kicked off in the blogosphere and twitterverse. The 45 second promo, which looks like a cross between a cosmetics ad and a girl group music video, begins with a young good-looking lab-coated male scientist looking up from his microscope to the shocking (and arousing?) sight of three attractive young women dressed in very high heels and even shorter skirts. These women giggle and provocatively gesture their way through the ad, intercut with overflowing test-tubes, models of molecules, lipstick and other girlie and scientific ephemera. Oh, and one of them gets to elegantly scribble symbols on a transparent board. At the end their fashionable shades transform into equally fashionable safety goggles. The music, with its single lyric, reminds us: ‘Science – It’s a Girl Thing!’ So is this how to ‘sell’ science to girls? Continue reading “Selling Science as ‘a Girl Thing’”
School inspections: do they tell us about sexual bullying in schools?
Ofsted published a thematic review on 19 June that looks at what schools can do to create a positive school culture and to prevent and tackle bullying. 37 primary schools and 19 secondary schools were included. One aspect of the survey, ‘No place for bullying’, was inspectors’ focus on pupils’ own experiences and understanding of bullying and its effects. Inspectors asked pupils what they would do if they were bullied, whether they had been bullied while at their current school and how well they thought their school dealt with bullying. Continue reading “School inspections: do they tell us about sexual bullying in schools?”
Cutting the UK Equalities Commission – one cut too far?
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission is currently in a fight for its survival. Continue reading “Cutting the UK Equalities Commission – one cut too far?”
Connecting the Cares: Lines of Flight, Emotional Drives
There were many similarities in our journeys, with repeated meetings across time and place, first at Rutgers University, New Jersey, then London and then Oakland: our queer community – and queer cares – kept bringing us together it seemed. ‘Queerness’ exists in these shared encounters and in the familial and societal demands made and refused as we inhabit our spaces carefully and with care. Continue reading “Connecting the Cares: Lines of Flight, Emotional Drives”
Rethinking gender equality in the teaching profession: is secondary school teaching ‘women-friendly’?
In many countries, teaching is constructed as a ‘women-friendly’ profession. By drawing on Les Enseignants et le Genre, a recently published cross-national comparison of men and women teachers based in French and English secondary schools, I want to question this view. Continue reading “Rethinking gender equality in the teaching profession: is secondary school teaching ‘women-friendly’?”
GEA Interim Conference, 11th – 13th April 2012
The interim conference, ‘Gender and Democracy: Gender and Research in Times of Change’, was hosted by the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Education and Special Education. Continue reading “GEA Interim Conference, 11th – 13th April 2012”