Pupils, Resistance and Gender Codes: a study of classroom encounters

ABSTRACT

This paper uses classroom observation in two rural comprehensive schools to examine the issue of why girls appear to contribute to their limited life chances by opting into feminine areas of the curriculum. It is argued that both teachers’ coping strategies and pupils’ opposition to education contribute to the reinforcement of traditional gender codes by drawing on exaggerated notions of masculinity and femininity. The concept of resistance is examined and it is argued that pupils’ manipulation of traditional gender codes to contest teacher authority does not constitute any challenge to the reproduction of existing class/gender relations, but rather reinforces the status quo.