Social media use, gender stereotypes and bullying: Selected reading
The TV series ‘Adolescence’ has received a lot of attention on and offline since it first became available to watch. It tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who brutally murders a female classmate and explores important issues including adolescents’ social media use, misogyny and gender stereotypes.
Following announcements from the streaming service to make the series freely available to secondary schools, we wanted to share with you some resources that can support you in raising some of these issues with your students, whether you choose to show the series or not. As the professional body for teachers, we are disappointed with the portrayal of schools and certain teachers in this series and feel that it does not capture any of the great practice that is going on in schools across the country to support students’ socio-emotional development and wellbeing but also recognise that it is a fictional story that plays with extremes for dramatic effect and attention and that it addresses important issues in schools. We neither want to encourage nor discourage the showing of the series in schools but encourage everyone to use their professional judgment to take the decision that is right for them, their students and their contexts. Either way, below are links to a selection of Chartered College resources to help you to discuss the important topics of social media, screen time, bullying, bereavement, gender stereotypes and how they relate to boys’ attainment with your students, colleagues and parents.
In partnership with ACAMH, we developed and published a series of bitesize online CPD to help support students’ mental health. The following units are particularly relevant in this context:
Supporting pupil mental health – Social media use
Supporting pupil mental health – Sleep and screen time
Supporting pupil mental health – Bullying and loneliness
The units on bereavement and taking whole-school approaches to supporting students’ mental health might also be of interest.
Another unit, which is based on our Leading Inclusive Schools course, explores approaches to community and parental engagement, which seems especially relevant in the context of topics that reach far beyond the school gates.
Articles
The following collection of articles explores how gender stereotypes affect attainment, starting as early as the Early Years, and how to address gender stereotypes in education.
How gender stereotyped play affects children’s learning
Gender stereotypes and their impact on children’s metacognition
Researching character development and volunteering in Year 12 boys
Past events
Combatting misogyny in schools
In this talk, Matt Pinkett examines the problem of toxic masculinity in schools and provides advice to teachers as to how they can combat misogyny and sexual harassment in schools.
Closing the attainment gap for boys in secondary schools
This webinar presents results from a project investigating why, on average, boys underachieve, relative to girls at every stage in their education and presents practical insights from schools who have overcome some of the typical issues associated with boys’ underachievement.
