New research highlights key factor influencing teachers’ willingness to address sexism in the classroom

The Netflix hit ‘Adolescence’ has sparked widespread conversations about teaching school-age children about sexism. However, new research led by the University of Surrey has revealed why teachers often shy away from discussing this sensitive topic.

A two-part study published in the journal Social Psychology of Education has shed light on factors predicting whether primary and secondary school teachers intend to teach about sexism in their classrooms.

The research, involving both qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys with over 200 teachers in England and Wales, found that the strongest predictors of their intentions to engage pupils in this subject include their knowledge and comfort levels with the topic, their belief in the importance of addressing sexism, and how young they are.

The first study involved in-depth interviews with 20 primary school teachers. It revealed several key barriers that prevent teachers from addressing sexism in the classroom, including:

• The belief that sexism is not a problem among young children

• Feeling unsure or anxious about saying the wrong thing

• Lacking the knowledge and language to talk about the topic confidently

• Feeling unsupported by school leadership and worrying about potential backlash from parents

• Seeing the topic as less of a priority compared to other core subjects in an already crowded curriculum

Despite these barriers, the qualitative study also identified reasons why teachers did teach about sexism. These included a desire to balance out potentially harmful messages from media and parents, having support from authority figures, and when the topic naturally arose within existing lessons.

Professor Harriet Tenenbaum, Professor in Developmental and Social Psychology at the University of Surrey, commented:

"Our research highlights the critical role of teacher preparedness in addressing the issue of sexism in schools. There is a need for resources such as video recordings, discussion questions and appropriate vocabulary to aid their teaching. Platforms such as the Teach Gender Equality website are one such way to gain valuable insight on the topic.”

Building on these qualitative findings, the second study surveyed 233 primary and secondary school teachers. The quantitative analysis confirmed that higher levels of comfort and knowledge about teaching sexism, along with a stronger belief in the importance of "sexism socialisation" – preparing children for sexism – positively predicted teachers' intentions to teach about the topic in the future. Interestingly, younger teachers also showed a greater inclination to address sexism.

Professor Tenenbaum adds:

“We know that children have gender stereotypes before they start reception. We need to discuss with children how to question stereotypes so they have the skills not to succumb to the kind of dangerous beliefs dramatised in programmes like “Adolescence” and seen in real life cases. We must help educators feel prepared and confident to lead these discussions.

“By increasing teachers' knowledge and confidence, and reinforcing the value of these dialogues, we can help teachers create fairer classrooms for all students."

To learn more about how to teach gender equality, visit https://www.teachgenderequality.org/, a project resource funded by the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account to the University of Surrey.