Improving gender balance and equalities 3-18

PDF file: Quick Start Guide to Improving Gender Balance and Equalities resources (1.5 MB) - use this resource to navigate your way quickly through some of our most popular resources.

News and events

Go to our news and events for information about upcoming professional learning events and news and ideas from participating schools.

IGBE in a nutshell

PDF file: IGBE connections to National priorities (350 KB) - Overview of the programme, our rationale, key actions and connections with other education priorities and key national strategies.

Key resources

Gender stereotypes: an introduction for practitioners
Action guide for ELC practitioners
Action guide for primary schools
Action guide for secondary schools
Improving Gender Balance Self-evaluation Framework
Sharing practice (collated) October 2022
PDF file: Data guide for primary schools and early learning and childcare settings - a guide to help practitioners gather and analyse a range of data to support planning approaches to address persistent gender imbalances.
PDF file: Data guide for secondary schools - a guide to help practitioners gather and analyse a range of data to support planning approaches to address persistent gender imbalances.

Podcasts

IGBE Podcast Series: Episode 1: Introduction (Sway Presentation)
IGBE Podcast Series: Episode 2: Gender Inequality in Society (Sway Presentation)
Episode 3: Chemistry (Sway Presentation)
Episode 4: Time for Inclusive Education (Guest host) (Sway Presentation)
IGBE Podcast Series: Episode 5: Dance (Sway Presentation)
Episode 6: Rape Crisis Scotland (Guest host) (Sway Presentation)

IGBE in more detail

Further resources for practitioners
Resources for use with children and young people
Research and literature

Improvement questions

Are there ongoing and sustained opportunities for children and young people to reflect on gender stereotypes?
How do these resources help us to recognise and address our own unconscious bias?
How could these resources support improved gender balance in subject uptake and widen learner pathways?
How do these resources contribute to whole-establishment improvement?

Further resources for practitioners

Resources for practitioners in early learning and childcare (ELC), primary schools and secondary schools.

Guiding principles for developing and selecting resources that promote equality and diversity
Posters from Education Scotland’s Teacher Leadership programme with a Gender focus
STEM: improving gender balance, equity and equality – understanding who feels STEM is ‘right’ for them and why
A framework for monitoring interactions with young people in the classroom (Institute of Physics)
Parentzone Scotland - learning at home, supporting gender balance and equality
National Parent Forum of Scotland -STEM in a nutshell guide
Poster with tips for ensuring inclusivity in teaching - The advice is broad and appropriate for all levels (Institute of Physics)
Gender Action - resources to support a whole setting approach.
General Teaching Council for Scotland – Equality and Diversity hub – professional learning
Supporting transgender pupils in schools: Guidance for Scottish schools (August 2021)
Promoting race equality and anti-racist education - an overview and resources (Education Scotland 2021)
LGBT inclusive education- information for parents and carers (National Parent Forum of Scotland, 2021)

Early learning and childcare and primary schools

Gender equal play in early learning and childcare - practical tips plus advice on books, toys, activities, training and further reading (Care Inspectorate and Zero Tolerance, 2018)
Ravenswood Primary - 'Big Me' DYW approach to gender stereotyping
Gender equality for primary schools - a toolkit to support embedding gender equality into school policy, ethos and curriculum.
Equality and Equity Toolkit - provides a range of resources to help practitioners work with their communities to address equality and equity as part of their improvement journey (Education Scotland).

Secondary schools

Poster with tips for ensuring inclusivity in science teaching (Institute of Physics)
Computing Science - Gender lesson plans - Resources and activities
Inclusive learning checklist - Designed to help physics practitioners record and extend their gender-inclusive practice in the classroom (Institute of Physics). This could be adapted for any subject.
Equally safe at school (launched August 2021) - interactive website with tools, information and resources to support schools and teachers through a process of embedding a set of holistic measures to prevent gender-based violence.
Mentors in Violence Prevention in Scottish Schools

Resources for use with children and young people

Links to further resources for practitioners to use with children and young people in early learning and childcare, primary schools and secondary schools to help provide ongoing and sustained opportunities for children and young people to reflect on gender stereotypes, and to ensure children and young people access all areas of the curriculum and self-selection is tackled at all stages.

This is engineering UK image bank – diverse set of images of engineers and wide variety of jobs involved in engineering
Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) (2021) – lesson plans, workbooks and posters to support LGBT inclusive education
A scientist just like me - Introducing children to a diverse range of scientists and people who work in science-related jobs (Primary Science Teaching Trust)
Oor Fierce Girls - tailored resources to address peer sexual abuse and help ensure that every young woman and girl knows what a healthy relationship is and where to go if they need advice or support (NSPCC Scotland and YWCA Scotland)
Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) resource– toolkit complete with lesson plans, activities, PowerPoints, parental resources and reading recommendations
Stride Magazine Gender Equality – Resources for embedding gender equality in classroom activities
Breaking the mould - lesson plans, worksheets and discussion topics
Equaliteach: Outside the box toolkit - advice and techniques for educators, as well as lesson plans and activities
International Women’s Day School Resources – a suite of resources exploring gender stereotypes that can be used at any time of the year
Gender equality diversity and inclusion in books - Global Equality Collective

Early learning and childcare

Zero Tolerance – early years campaigns: resources, posters and advice
Let toys be toys campaign – Early years – ways to challenge stereotypes, resources, posters
Gender friendly nurseries - programme with nurseries in Glasgow - link to their support pack and training manual

Primary schools

Zero Tolerance – resources for challenging gender stereotypes with children and young people
Let toys be toys campaign – primary lesson plans and discussion materials
Talking jobs – short videos of individuals discussing their work to help challenge young people’s assumptions about who does what
Global Equality Collective
Diverse representation in Science: book ideas – book suggestions organised by topic

Secondary schools

Let toys be toys campaign – lesson plan (S2/S3)
SDS My World of Work – Stereotypes lesson plan and activities (S1- S3)
Be what you want campaign – teacher resource (page 11 onwards contains activities)
Global Equality Collective

STEM subjects

Doing the house work lesson plans and activities - data handling task to investigate the gender differences when it comes to household chores (S1-S3) (from STEM learning)

Other

Girls toys vs boys toys: The Experiment - clip from the BBC documentary ‘No more boys and girls’
Harvard implicit association test UK – test your own unconscious bias on a variety of characteristics

Research and literature

Links to research and literature for practitioners on the topics of: challenging gender stereotypes; addressing unconscious bias; improving gender balance in subject uptake and learner pathways; and promoting whole-establishment approaches to equality.

Poverty and Gender Inequality - A short paper on the gendered nature of poverty, why we need to challenge it and some things to consider (2021)

STEM: improving gender balance equity and equality – video playlist on YouTube

What does the research tell us and what can we do?

Part 1: Is STEM for the masculine and brainy?
Part 2: STEM and self-efficacy

IGBE literature review and webinar

This literature review gives an overview of the relevant theory and research, with points for professional discussion and ideas for practice (2019). The authors recorded a webinar, hosted by the GTCS. The presenters discuss key themes from the paper and answer questions from webinar participants (2019).

Findings and evaluation of IGB Scotland pilot project

Key findings and evaluation from the IGB pilot in Scotland (2018)
A blog detailing the work from the pilot (2016)
SDS Improving Gender Balance findings (2018) - YouTube video

Other equalities related research

EngineeringUK: Interventions to increase girls’ aspirations for engineering and technology careers (2023)
IN SIGHT REPORT — Intercultural Youth Scotland (2020)
Girls in Scotland 2020 (Girl Guiding Scotland, 2020)
Reflecting realities: survey of ethnic representation within UK Children’s Literature 2019 (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 2020)
Women in STEM : An intersectional analysis of multiple discriminations (Equate, 2020)
Our careers, our future - STEM careers provision and young people (Engineering UK, 2020)
Research briefing: Looking at gender balance in STEM subjects at school (Education Scotland, 2015)
List of references: Looking at gender balance in STEM subjects at school (Education Scotland, 2015)
Opening Doors – A guide to good practice in countering gender stereotyping in schools (Institute of Physics, 2015)
Authentic Research Projects in Schools - contains links to opportunities for learners to conduct original scientific research. (Institute of Physics, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Education Scotland, 2017).
SLF 2018 - Professor Louise Archer speaks about a science capital approach to improve young people’s engagement with STEM (YouTube).
YouTube videos are available in the IGBE video playlist
UCL: What sort of girl wants to study physics after the age of 16? Findings from a large-scale UK survey (Mujtaba and Reiss, 2013)

Note on copyright

The Institute of Physics materials are made available with the kind permission of the Institute of Physics (© Institute of Physics 2017). Re-use of these materials is subject to IOP’s copyright policy, which can be accessed here: https://www.iop.org/copyright

What is this?

Improving Gender Balance and Equalities (IGBE) resources and research for practitioners to help:

challenge gender stereotypes;
address unconscious bias;
improve gender balance in subject uptake and learner pathways;
promote whole-establishment approaches to equality.

Who is this for?

All practitioners (ELC, primary and secondary schools). You can join the conversation in a number of ways:

Follow us on Twitter @EdScotIGBE
Get in touch IGBE@educationscotland.gov.scot