This book presents a compelling range of international research on the issues of gender balance and gender bias in education. The chapters draw on cutting edge work from the US, Latin America, the UK, Ireland and Africa, presenting readers with new insights into how educators and students often negotiate deeply ingrained prejudices that are expressed in gendered terms.

The book reflects research that draws on a range of methodologies, and both historical and contemporary education contexts are examined. Drawing on historical research, the book widens our understanding of gender issues in education, and provides chapters on physical activity for girls in nineteenth century America, and on the ‘patriarchal imperative’ in mission education in Africa in the nineteenth century. Turning to research on contemporary education settings, the book explores the global phenomenon of the feminisation of teaching. It also illustrates how teachers work in classrooms in which boys’ expressions of masculinities explicitly challenge school order, and looks at the performance of both masculinities and femininities in several education contexts. The book also includes absorbing work on the practices and processes that contribute to the gendering of digital technologies, and it demonstrates ways in which parents unwittingly accept the gendered management of internet ‘risk’ for their daughters.

This book was published as a special issue of Gender and Education.