Edited by Myra Barrs and Sue Pidgeon
Sandy Brownjohn, Times Educational Supplement
We know that there are major differences between girls and boys as readers - differences in the amount they read, in the books they choose, and in their reading attainment. This book represents perhaps the most extended attempt yet made to examine directly the links between reading development and gender difference. Contributors include teachers, parents, educationalists and academic researchers.
What reviewers have said about Reading the Difference
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Reviews for Reading the Difference
“Before you dismiss this as another feminist campaign to break away from stereotypes in children's literature, read on. An interesting observation to emerge from two different studies in this collection suggests that politically correct books often fail in their objectives. Take The Paper Bag Princess, for example. Both girls and boys criticise the heroine for not living up to a well-dressed pretty princess image.
In fact, the concern of the anti- sexist lobby is shown to be some- what misplaced because it fails to recognise that reading is not a passive activity. On the contrary, we bring all sorts of experiences to bear on anything we read. It is a three-way process between the author, the text and the reader.
The received wisdom is that girls enjoy reading fiction, while boys tend to opt for factual books, and this is carried on into adult life where men read newspapers, sci fi and DIY manuals, while women gravitate towards romantic and historical fiction.
The research gathered in this book goes a long way towards analysing girls' and boys' different approaches to, and achievements in, reading. Why and how do they differ? And how can teachers use this knowledge to the children's best advantage? Certainly it seems that girls look for relationships and characterisation in stories, and tend to draw comparisons between fiction and real life, seeing parallels with their own existence. Boys, on the other hand, look principally for action-packed adventure with heroes on to whom they can project themselves. They don't want to read “girls'” books, and are often happiest with factual material.
The researchers repeatedly found that young girls and boys seemed to want to conform to the pink-versus-blue, dolls-versus- guns, stereotypes of themselves. Why this is so, however, is not completely answered.
Obviously children seeking to understand what it is to be a girl or a boy do take cues from what they see around them. If, and what, mum and dad read, will affect children's perception of the place of reading in their lives. In the female-dominated primary school sector, the male role model can also make a world of difference. In classrooms where strategies to minimise the gender effect have been employed, the differences between boys' and girls' attitudes towards reading are far less marked than elsewhere.
I would like to have seen more research on the exceptions to the rule - the tomboy who loves adventure stories and would not be seen dead with a doll, for instance. Also, I have observed that, in general, boys seem to take to poetry writing more naturally than girls. The concise highly-charged use of language in poetry, with its ordering of selective facts to convey and elicit emotions, has often given boys a much-needed and welcomed means of expressing their thoughts and feelings. Is this in some way related? I think we should be told.
The book concludes with a wide range of practical suggestions for teachers of reading, and the evidence clearly shows positive benefits for both sexes. It is no bad thing for teachers to have their assumptions challenged every now and then, and this book certainly heightens awareness of gender issues in the most useful way.”
Sandy Brownjohn
Times Educational Supplement, 25 March 1994
“…Readinq the Difference takes up the question of gender and reading. As Myra Barrs points out in her introduction “We have long been aware of the differences between girls and boys in reading (girls read more than boys; girls and boys make different choices in their reading; girls achieve more highly than boys in reading) but these differences have often been seen as unproblematic and indeed, “natural”. This introductory chapter reveals some of the contradictions of this situation - for example, that books often represent boys as more active than girls or that boys receive more attention from teachers - and discusses some of the implications of the differences. Like Elaine Millard, she argues that girls' aversion to information texts may disadvantage them when it comes to using reading across the curriculum.
The book is divided into 3 sections with resonance for secondary teachers. Sue Pidgeon's “Learning Reading and Learning Gender” develops the idea that for children learning about gender-related reading differences is part of learning one's gender identity. Even very young children show “considerable knowledge about what men and women read and why”. This theme is taken up by Hilary Minns, in “Three Ten Year Old Boys and their Reading”, which shows how the boys' concept of themselves as readers is linked to their sense of their identity as males…Julia Hodgeon's research discussing gender and reading with parents confirms that they have different views of their sons and daughters as readers, and provide them with different experiences of reading at home. Yet parents were often unaware of gender-differentiated achievements in reading…
The section on Texts explores some of the differences between boys and girls in what they choose to read and what the implications of this are. Sue Adler looks at some of the evidence for the different ways in which boys and girls make sense of texts showing that (as Charles Sarland has shown) girls and boys may read the same book but interpret it quite differently…
The final section “Teachers” looks at some examples of classroom practices. In his essay “From a Different Perspective” Michael Annan examines how being black and male has influenced his classroom practice in reading. As well as discussing the selection of texts he describes also the cultural differences he has noticed working in a largely white and female environment. In the final piece “Changing the Pattern” Sue Ellis addresses the difficult question of how we can make changes in this area. Looking at the practice of two teachers, she concludes that equal opportunities issues cannot be tackled separately from the rest of classroom practices…Many of the activities described in this chapter could also find a place in the secondary English classroom, but perhaps more important is the message that, without organisation and structure, boys and girls are likely to make more stereotyped choices. Equality consists not only in providing opportunities for both to develop more widely, but in providing structures which support take-up of these opportunities. Secondary teachers would find this book of considerable interest in thinking about how to do this in their own context.”
Elizabeth Plackett
The English and Media Magazine, Autumn 1994
“Reading the Difference is a collection of articles which explores various issues surrounding gender and reading in the primary phase…
The book reflects how the emphasis in gender issues has shifted. Concerns about presenting girls with positive role models have not been eradicated, but, especially since the “Boys and English” government report, more questions are being raised about boys' underachievement in English. Barrs challenges the almost-accepted truisms that boys read less, are only interested in non-fiction and do not perform well in reading activities and tests. She opens up a debate that is continued later in the book by Pidgeon, Adler, Hodgeon, Walkerdine et al about gender acquisition, gender identification and different approaches to reading by males and females.
Pidgeon explores where children get their “gender specific” reading behaviour from, the starting point of a reception class. She notices that some texts are seen by the children as being for girls and some are seen to be for boys. This difference becomes more pronounced as children get older. Pidgeon's interviews with children confirm that what they see their parent of the same gender reading at home has a profound influence on them. Hodgeon's article about talking to parents about their children's reading supports this - she found that parents' attitudes and approaches to reading generally had a far greater influence than teachers and resources in school…
The final group of articles is based on concerns expressed from the classroom and ways forward for teachers. Earlier in the book Minns and Hodgeon stress the need for the teacher to take into account the whole of children's reading. both in and out of school, when recording and assessing. Michael Annan supports this view of working from the child, reflecting her interests as much as possible in the resources that the school offers. Sara Hayne questions the approach of some of the “anti-sexist” and “non-sexist” books that are generally around in classrooms, using them as a basis of discussion and other work rather than holding them up as good models. Hayne, like Pidgeon, - has discovered that children's responses are not always those that we as well-meaning and good-intentioned adults might expect.
Angela Buckle
Primary Teaching Studies, Summer 1994
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