The ‘Girls and Education 3-16’ seminar series enabled researchers, practitioners and policy makers to come together to discuss current concerns about girls’ education in the UK, and to consider new research agendas, policy imperatives and ways forward for practice. Recent concerns about boys’ comparative ‘underachievement’ have meant that girls have largely been sidelined in the educational research, policy and practice agendas in recent years. Nevertheless, previous problems persist for girls, such as disempowering experiences in schooling, their avoidance of high-status, masculine-labelled subjects such as mathematics and physical sciences, and their increasing reluctance to take part in physical education as they get older. At the same time, newer concerns are emerging around the numbers of girls formally and informally excluded from schooling, and increases in drug and alcohol use, particularly in the 12-16 age group.
The series of six seminars covered the following themes:
Theme 1: Girls and academic achievement
•Girls’ relationships to academic success
•Excluded and low-attaining girls
Theme 2: Girls’ experiences in the schooling system
•Girls and the school curriculum
•Girls experiences of school life
Theme 3: Relationships between girls’ out-of-school experiences and school life
•Girls and their social worlds
•Marginal femininities
A book coming out of the seminar series is now available: Girls and Education 3-16: continuing concerns, new agendas
