Secret Teacher: why is feminism still a dirty word in the classroom?

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2013/nov/23/feminism-classroom-dirty-word-secret-teacher

Version 0 of 1.

The F word: frowned upon, hotly contested, and, unfortunately, infrequently used in British secondary schools. I'm talking about feminism, of course.

It seems feminism is still a dirty word in the classroom. As a teacher, I was not particularly shocked by the fact that 17-year-old Jinan Younis didn't feel supported when she started a feminist society at her school. Nor was I particularly surprised when sixth formers from a nearby boy's school responded with a flood of misogynistic abuse on Twitter.

I've also encountered a distinctly derisive attitude towards any mention of gender, let alone feminism, since I began teaching two years ago. In one instance, my senior (female, middle aged) mentor pointed out that the boys in my lessons were contributing a lot more than the girls.

When I mentioned this feedback to my (young, male) mentor I was told that: "she always says stuff like that. She's got a real bee in her bonnet. Just ignore her." Effectively, a completely valid and necessary developmental point was dismissed out of hand for having been tainted with the 'feminist' brush.

It is not just the disdainful attitude of many teachers towards feminism which is denying students an insight into one of the most significant human rights and equalities movements of the last century, it's also the national curriculum.

Across a range of key stage 3 schemes of work and the current national programme of study in history (which I teach), women are far and few between. In the new national curriculum for history, they're referred to implicitly under the rubric of 'society, economy and culture'. Other than that, the role of women as examples of study comes up just twice in the forms of the women's suffrage and the Elizabethan religious settlement. That effectively means that the role of half the population is mentioned directly just twice out of the 38 suggested topics.

Fortunately for most history departments, this will mean minimum change to their existing schemes of work. One of my most shameful moments as a teacher was when one of my female year 7 students asked me at the end of the year: "Why do we just study kings in history, miss?" I don't think my school is unusual in waiting to expose students to the role of women in history until Henry's wives crop up, and even then, it is their role as wives that qualify them for this privilege.

Clearly, there are fewer significant political female figures in the medieval and early modern periods than male ones. But that's why academic historians have been so keen to point out that human experience extends beyond the political realm. Our curriculums, in history and other subjects, must present young people with a balanced appreciation of the roles of men and women if their notions of 'man' and 'woman' are to reflect anything approximating equality.

These gendered biases ingrained in our education system occur against a worrying consensus that gender equality has been achieved, or even surpassed in favour of women and girls. This myth has rendered feminism irrelevant and even embarrassing to many. The evidence, however, suggests that gender equality is still a long way off. In the UK today, one in three teenage girls experiences sexual violence from a boyfriend, one in three young women experiences sexual bullying in school on a daily basis, one in five young men worry that porn is influencing their behaviour and nearly a third (31%) of boys believe female politicians are not as good as male politicians.

One of the reasons why feminism has been shunned from our schools is because of the now commonplace – and highly necessary – recognition that on average girls' academic achievement is higher than boys. This year, girls' performance surpassed boys further than at any time since the introduction of GCSEs in the 1980s.

Rather than this constituting a reason to ignore feminism, this achievement differential is screaming out for an approach to teaching and learning which takes account of gendered difference. In my experience, one of the main reasons boys are not achieving as highly as girls is due to a widely idealised version of adolescent masculinity – the 'alpha male'. In other words, the dominant mode of masculinity does not make it cool to behave well, or to show academic interest and enthusiasm.

The educational achievement gap shows how much we need a gendered approach to education – for boys as well as girls. But the importance of feminism in schools goes beyond academic achievement. It is during a young person's school years that their gender and sexual identities are formed. If we want a more equal society then it is vital that schools engage with some of the issues that feminism is concerned with: relationships, body politics, violence against women and girls, sexual health and reproductive rights, pornography and consent.

How can we expect young people to understand that pornography does not represent healthy or commonplace sexual activity, that 'no' means no or that homophobia is not acceptable, if we don't openly engage with them on these issues?

There are, of course, many teachers who are already doing this important work, but far less who are doing so with any explicit reference to feminism. Without connecting these discussions to feminism these conversations lack any sense of the historic movement from which they came. They also deprive students of a vital framework for understanding the gender inequalities in our society, and how they can be challenged.

It is essential that young people are exposed to 'herstory' as well as history and are engaged in conversations about the issues that feminists have been pointing out are essential for the realisation of gender equality. As one activist stated on the Feminism belongs in schools blog: "If boys and girls can learn to talk to each other about their hopes and fears, perhaps men and women will too." Feminism can help this happen in schools.

Perhaps if the boys who'd derided Jinan Younis' feminist society had been exposed to feminism themselves they wouldn't have turned to verbal abuse to deal with something they didn't understand. Perhaps they would also be doing better in school.

<em>This week's Secret Teacher works at a secondary school in London.</em>

• <strong>Would you like to be the next Secret Teacher? Got an idea for an anonymous blog post about the trials, tribulations and frustrations of school life? Get in touch: kerry.eustice@theguardian.com. </strong>

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Looking for your next role? Take a look at Guardian jobs for schools for thousands of the latest teaching, leadership and support jobs.