To what extent do gender stereotypes still exist within PE and how do they affect pupils' attitudes and behaviours towards trainee PE teachers?

Bosworth, Jill (2025) To what extent do gender stereotypes still exist within PE and how do they affect pupils' attitudes and behaviours towards trainee PE teachers? Physical Education Matters, 20 (3). pp. 68-73. ISSN 1751-0988

Text TO WHAT EXTENT DO GENDER STEREOTYPES STILL EXIST WITHIN PE AND HOW DO THEY AFFECT PUPILS’ ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOURS TOWARDS TRAINEE PE TEACHERS.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (501kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Introduction The year is 2024; the question ‘does gender equality exist?’ According to the United Nations (2023), the answer, no, stating “the world is failing girls and women... [and is] falling short of achieving gender equality” (para. 1,2). No single country has closed the gender gap with the UK gap currently at 26.9% (House of Lords, 2024). Misogynistic views are still prevalent and more easily shared via social media channels, with influencers such as Andrew Tate providing a concerning narrative to young men (Skopeliti, 2024). Booth (2024) furthers this view, identifying 16% of male 16–29-year-olds having negative perceptions of feminism, social media again playing a key role in the diet that this age group receives, coupled with inexperience of inequality experienced by females. Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges (2021) cited sexist name calling being ‘commonplace’ and not worthy of being reported due to its normal way of behaving in schools. The report finds that the problem is bigger than teachers realise, which is concerning given Teachers’ Standards part two requires teachers to safeguard pupils’ well-being (DfE, 2011). Current non-statutory advice from the DfE includes challenging these views within PE but also asks of teachers to challenge their own beliefs and approaches (2024) as Díaz de Greñu and Anguita (2017) found that stereotypes in relation to gender and sexual orientation still exist within secondary school teachers and changes in behaviour do not occur as quickly as is desired. Given that 93% of young people who end up in prison are male (Office for National Statistics, 2023), there is a need to bring gender stereotypes and difference in education to the fore. Schnitzius et al. (2021) poses that there is a need to coordinate and bring together the beliefs of PE teacher educators and PE student teachers, and that current teacher education fails to prepare trainees to engage with difference and challenge inequalities (Stride et al., 2020). This project aims to ascertain if gender stereotypes are still present within PE, and if there are differences in attitudes and behaviours towards trainee teachers based on their gender between secondary school aged males and females. From the results of these findings, the lecturing team who teach trainee teachers will discover whether changes to the curriculum need to be made, as teachers can be central in the conscious and unconscious reproduction of equality (Scraton, 2018) in order to better prepare early career teachers, ensuring teaching is centred on student success (Plymouth Marjon University, 2019).

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	JISCRouter
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2026 15:27
Last Modified:	15 Jan 2026 15:27
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/18069

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