English in single-sex classrooms. English teachers’ considerations when selecting texts for single-sex classes

Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to find out whether some teachers at the vocational upper secondary schools where we have had our teaching practice are aware of the gender perspective and if/how they implement it in their teaching. The focus of the investigation is to find out to what extent the teachers in question take gender into account when they select texts for their single-sex classes. The aim was to learn about the teachers’ thoughts and views on gender issues as well as learning more about how to work gender consciously in the classroom. Qualitative interviews with seven upper secondary teachers were carried out. The semi-structured interviews we conducted contained guiding questions concerning gender, single-sex classes, material used for teaching. All the interviewed teachers think that gender is a very important question both in school and in society. The majority of the participating teachers do adjust their material with gender as a factor according to the sex of the majority of the class. The teachers emphasized that they also take other factors into account when selecting texts; an important one is the pupils’ course of study and interests.