The gender agenda in primary teacher education in England: fifteen lost years?

The debate in the UK about gender equity and equal opportunities for girls and boys has been 'captured', in the last two decades, by an overriding concern with the issue of boys' apparent under-achievement. More recently, however, there has been a reaction to essentialist approaches related to 'boy-friendly' pedagogies and strategies, and attempts to return the debate to consider gender relational and gender-inclusive approaches. This article focuses upon these issues within the context of the initial training and education of primary school teachers in the UK, exploring the gender awareness and perceptions of one cohort of trainee teachers, to establish their emerging beliefs about pedagogy, curriculum and whole school strategies. On the basis of our findings, we argue that there is a need to re-activate debates about gender identity and inclusivity within initial teacher education and training in the UK, and to reconnect research within the academic community and teaching on such courses, if the seductive discourse about the need to defeminise primary schooling is to be effectively challenged.