Gendered identities and work placement: why don't boys care?

Osgood, Jayne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9424-8602, Francis, Becky and Archer, Louise (2006) Gendered identities and work placement: why don't boys care? Journal of Education Policy, 21 (3) . pp. 305-321. ISSN 0268-0939 [Article] (doi:10.1080/02680930600600424)

Abstract

Students' post‐compulsory pathways and occupational aspirations in the UK have been shown to differ considerably according to gender, social class and ethnicity. School‐based work experience provides many pupils with their first significant encounters with the world of work, and is positioned as providing diverse experiences in this regard. Yet gender‐stereotypical patterns manifesting in pupils' occupational aspirations have been found to be replicated in pupil take‐up of work experience placements. This paper draws on a study of gender issues in work experience placement in England commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission to show how work experience exacerbates, rather than challenges, pupils' gender stereotypical trajectories. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has been shown to be a particularly gendered and classed occupational field, and is one that is currently experiencing staff shortages. Hence we focus on the area of ECEC as a case, analysing pupils' talk about their ECEC placements and about ECEC as a gendered area of work. In this way we reveal the discursive practices by which pupils construct occupations as gendered, providing explanation for the perpetuation of gender stereotypical patterns in pupils' uptake of work experience placements and occupational aspirations.

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