Teaching for gender justice

Since the mid 1990s 'boys' as an equity concern have come to dominate the gender and education agenda in many countries. This has been particularly the case in Australia where substantial funding has been invested in research to investigate boys' issues, into a federal parliamentary inquiry into boys' education and into schools that have a particular focus on improving boys' education. The discourses that work to construct boys as an equity concern have had differing impacts upon teachers' philosophies and practices in relation to boys' education. In this paper we locate two teacher stories within the context of broader gender equity discourses in Australia. Against a backdrop that attempts to articulate the primary concerns of two secondary teachers in relation to effectively teaching boys, the stories explore implications for gender justice that can be associated with, on the one hand, an affirmative approach, and on the other, a transformative approach to issues of boys and schooling.