Introduction: educational reforms and equal opportunities programmes; Introduction: the reform of education: Gender struggles within education: the historical context; Feminisms in education and the construction of ‘equality’; Educational reforms and equal opportunities: multiple policy agendas in action PART 1 Gender and educational reforms: the UK and European context 1 Gender equality and schooling, education policy-making and feminist research in England and Wales in the 1990s 2 Equal opportunities and educational reform in Scotland: the limits of liberalism 3 Beyond one border: educational reforms and gender equality in Welsh schools 4 Gender, educational reform and equality in Northern Ireland 5 Mainstreaming European ‘equal opportunities’: marginalising UK training for women 6 Gender and national curricula 7 Equity, assessment and gender 8 Gender in the classrooms of more and less ‘effective’ schools 9 All change, no change: gendered regimes in the post-sixteen setting PART 3 Delegation and the new managerialism 10 Gendered governance: education reform and lay involvement in the local management of schools 11 Women head teachers in Northern Ireland 12 Teacher education policy and gender PART 4 Groups at the margins 13 Gender equality, the ‘learning society’ policies and community education 14 Gender and exclusion from school 15 Caring, consuming and choosing: parental choice policy for mothers of children with special educational needs 16 Class, race and collective action Conclusion: gender, policy and educational change

'This book must be read to gather all the complexities and nuances of gender relations in schools brought to light by the varied research. The authors throughout give many indicators for future research, especially the urgent priority for investigating educational processes as well as performance.' - British Educational Research Journal