Research on Gender and Education in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

Sex has for many years been an important independent variable in educational research, but the serious theoretical discussion of the variable as a dependent variable belongs mostly to the last three decades. A need for a conceptual reorientation has emerged which, for one thing, resulted in the replacement of the concept sex by the concept gender. The article in this section presents and discusses the necessity and the development of this theoretical reorientation in the Nordic countries, which has attracted many researchers and instigated inventive projects. In addition the article gives an overview of Nordic empirical gender research in or related to education: first the studies that opened up the field, then the development that followed. This presentation focuses on different subareas, such as studies of gender and ability, learning and achievement, studies of gender aspects of classroom interaction, studies of single‐sex learning arrangements, action research studies in order to expand the interpersonal and emotional skills repertoire of boys and girls, studies of gender identity. Although differences between the Nordic countries are clear, similarity is the dominant trait. At the end the article comments on recent viewpoints on the likely development of gender policy and outlines basic educational questions within the Nordic educational systems.