Project Overview
The aim of this project was to explore any potential schooling influences on children's relationship with gender in order to identify key areas that need addressing through policy and curriculum changes to stop children from observing, learning or internalizing hegemonic gender stereotypes and remove any associated limitations of these stereotypes in later life. Participants recruited were cisgendered to tackle the gap in the research, in that many gender related research within childhood relate to transgender children and those outside the binary. Alongside this, it is important to highlight the gender divide that takes place within school systems (as found within our previous research, Dodgers, Cordoba & Coe., 2023) in the ways that boys can be prioritized within sporting scenarios and unnecessarily divided from girls. The interviews discussed the participants’ understanding of gender as a construct and their experiences, their schooling experiences around expression or expectations as well as sporting experiences of treatment or opportunities.
Research Aims:
- Explore young people’s relationship with their own gender identity/expression and other gender expressions;
- Identify how educational environments influence children’s gender relationship; and
- Consider the impact of sporting experiences on how children view other genders.
Research Questions:
- How do the participants feel about their own gender and people of other genders?
- How have educational environments influenced their relationship with gender?
- What impact does sporting experiences have on how children view other genders?
Data and Data Collection Overview
Participants were recruited via purposive sampling. Five high schools within the Norfolk and Suffolk counties in the United Kingdom were approached for recruitment; one consented to be a research site. From this high school, 14 students were recruited that fit the criteria and were selected by officials at the school to include two students from each academic year. From the 14 approached, seven took part in the study. Selection criteria were being a student within the school and having written consent from parent/guardian. The participants were also required to be cisgendered and not identifying within the LGBTQ+ community.
Participants and guardians were presented with an information sheet and a consent form before participating in the study. The participants were asked several questions and were prompted with follow-up questions to explore the topics in further detail. The interview schedule was developed to encourage freedom to express feelings around specific schooling experiences.
Seven 60-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted with secondary school and sixth-form students. Students were cisgendered and non-LGBTQ+ identifying, year 7 to 13, and aged 11 to 17. The interviews were audio recorded, then transcribed and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
All data were anonymized at source through application of a randomly assigned pseudonym. On completion of the interview, participants were debriefed and sent a debrief form with relevant support contact details and information on how to withdraw their information from the study if desired, however none withdrew and so all data collected are included in the coded data file shared here. Participants also could request details on findings from the study.
Shared Data Organization
The data deposit consists of nine files. Only coded qualitative data are shared due to consent language limitations. Analytical themes with illustrative quotes for each from the interviews are contained within an .xlsx file (and replicated within two separate .csv files for greater interoperability). The questions used in the interviews are also within this spreadsheet. Documentation files include the consent forms used for students and parents, debrief letters sent to students and parents, this data narrative, and an administrative README file. |
