Gender, Identity, Status and the Body: Life in a marginal subject

Abstract

This paper considers the situation of secondary teachers working in two marginal school subjects, design and technology and physical education. Focusing on the interaction between gender, identity, status and the body, we explore the similarities between these subjects, and suggest that marginality is itself gendered. Through a consideration of the gendered legacies of these subjects, their contradictory status positions, the importance of the body to their work and the specific problems of women teachers, we draw out features that seem to be specific to such gendered marginality. We argue that there is an increasing tendency for lower status school subjects to become more 'masculine' in orientation and that in these areas co-education has done a disservice to both girls and women teachers, who are now isolated in areas governed by paradigms developed in a purely male context.

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