Menstruation and menstrual stigma have recently attracted the attention of education policymakers in England. In 2019, the Department for Education (DfE) published new guidance on delivering relationships, sex and health education that included teaching about menstrual wellbeing and in 2020 made menstrual products freely available in all…

This study utilises diversity dolls to elicit young children's perceptions of visual disabilities. The study which involved 20 participants aged between six to seven years old suggests that although many children have positive attitudes towards peers with physical disabilities, attitudes are often grounded in the deficit medical model, with…

Listeners have been shown to judge second language (L2) users more negatively than L1 speakers on measures of language proficiency and even on personal qualities. However, less is known about what factors affect listener judgment which this study seeks to explore. In the study, one first language (L1) English speaker recorded her spontaneous…

Sexual minority youth are at greater risk for bullying victimization than their heterosexual peers but data on perpetration and cybervictimization is limited. Using representative data from seven European countries and one region (N = 14,545), this study compared traditional bullying victimization and perpetration, and cyberbullying victimization…

This paper examines the potential causes of dissonance amongst primary trainee teachers while undertaking teacher training placements in faith settings. The positioning of this research extends beyond teacher education indicating a significant need to unravel the tensions that exist in a multicultural yet fragmented society. Faith, identity and…

This research explores how adolescent females who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience secondary education in England and make sense of their identity. Within schools, responsibility for supporting this population is placed in the hands of teachers, though prior research suggests that teachers feel…

Schools continue to produce regimes of gender and sexuality, including overt and covert curricula based on assumed essentialist differences between girls and boys, reinforced and regulated through uniform, sport and peer pressure. The recent focus on the experiences of trans and non-binary children in schools makes visible the ways in which all…

As part of a wider study into the educational attitudes and experiences of white, working-class male pupils in the north of England, this paper explored the ways that male pupils in years 10 and 11 navigated and experienced the six-level (A-F) academic banding system present in their British mainstream secondary school (Ayrefield Community…

Educating young people about sexual consent aims to help them develop healthy relationships and prevent sexual harm. Yet, there remains no consensus on how to define consent nor the connection between consent and sexual harm. This article discusses findings from qualitative research conducted with young people in England that has explored issues…

Two recent reports suggest that Muslim students are experiencing increased levels of Islamophobia while studying at universities in the United Kingdom (UK). While so, the issue has attracted little scholarly investigation. Responding to this gap in the literature, this article sets out new and previously unpublished findings drawn from qualitative…

Background: Publications documenting how teaching is typically undertaken in highly cis-normative school spaces are beginning to increase in popularity. Scholars highlight how school Physical Education (PE) departments operate as highly gendered, and exclusive spaces which are typically ruled by gender-binarised discourses. This ideology is…

Child displacement levels are rising due to conflict and violence; early educators often provide the first sustained contact young refugee children have with host-country culture. Sensitive pedagogical practices can provide refugee children with a sense of safety as they navigate their new world. This article shares one aspect of a Pedagogy of…

The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light upon the issue of food insecurity in families, with school closures (for most children) drawing concern not simply because of the impact upon pupils' education, but also due to the lack of free school meals available for children in families with low incomes (Lalli, 2021). Since the pandemic, families in the…

A growing number of adolescents are using a number of different identities to describe their gender. Schools have been noted for their uninclusive environments and high levels of discrimination for LGBTQ + individuals, yet research has neglected the school experiences of UK gender-diverse adolescents. This article explores the school experiences…

In light of recent protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events, this essay offers a critical examination of the role of gender performance in secondary schools and English lessons through a personal exploration of how I perform gender as a queer English teacher. I show that schools perpetuate a model of gender that is binary and heterosexist; that…