Sex/gender is an interesting phenomenon in biological and social sciences. It is characterised by constant redefinitions and conflicts as knowledge increases and social norms change. To understand the change in sex/gender representations in biology education, we analysed Finnish secondary school human biology textbooks from the 1990s until the…

This case study examines a Nordic on-line course on gender equality promotion in education, in which principals, teachers, school staff and gender equality activists engaged in dialogue regarding contents and practices. The on-line course was designed with reference to promising practices identified in a previous Nordic network project. The…

Higher education systems globally have seen major increases in women's participation and the overall trend in OECD countries has been a transition from the traditional male majority in enrolments to a substantial female majority. Prompted by a recent reversal of this trend, this paper explores gender differences in participation in higher…

This article examines the equality agenda in the context of Finnish university reform in the 21st century. In Finland, the academic regime went through an organizational transformation after the Universities Act in 2009. However, little attention has been paid to the questions of sex or equality. Since the policy influences on equality in…

Homogeneous teaching efficacy profiles of in-service physical education (PE) teachers (N = 175) from a variety of educational institutions, elementary to higher education, were examined. In addition, associated gender bias and equality beliefs in PE were investigated. Three profiles (Low, Intermediate, High) were identified using cross-sectional…

The gender difference in reading achievement in favor of adolescent girls is a robust finding in the literature, but the evidence is mixed when considering younger children. The present study followed the development of reading skills among Finnish children (N = 1867) from kindergarten age (6 years) to 18 years of age to determine the onset of…

This paper presents a novel process perspective on educational equality policies by examining the relationship between gender equality discourses and gender binary inequalities in the deliberative design process of the Finnish Basic Education Core Curriculum 2014. The analysis applies Nancy Fraser's theory of three-dimensional justice to feedback…

We analyzed the associations between sexual orientation and subjection to/perpetration of bullying at school, taking into account confounding by psychiatric symptom dimensions and involvement in the other role. Survey data among 25,147 boys and 25,257 girls in comprehensive school, and 33,231 boys and 36,765 girls in upper secondary education in…

In this study, we argue that touch is a way of producing gender in preschool and our aim is to explore different kinds of matters that intersect with gendered touch practices in this context. Our theoretical starting points draw on the performativity of gender and the discursively constructed touch practices of early childhood educators. We…

Purpose: Finance is a male-dominated field of work. This study aims to understand if learning in finance follows the same pattern. Furthermore, the authors want to understand if foreign female students are subject to the same cultural norms and sorting mechanisms as their counterparts from the USA or Finland. Design/methodology/approach: In the…

The study investigates peer aggression and sexual harassment among young adolescents in Finland and Turkey. Sex differences and the interaction effect between country of residence and sex are also examined. A questionnaire was completed by 1,747 adolescents (1, 268 from Finland, 479 from Turkey, M[subscript age] = 14.1). Six different forms of…

In a changing society where the roles of fathers and mothers in caregiving are becoming more equal, the role of the father in early language development has also changed. We aimed to study associations between paternal factors and early vocabulary development in boys and girls. In a longitudinal cohort study, we examined the growth of expressive…

There is long-lasting horizontal and vertical segregation between female and male academics in technical fields in Finland. This article takes the lack of female academics as its starting point and focuses on a particular case in Finland: the merger of Tampere University of Technology (TUT) and the comprehensive University of Tampere (UTA), two…

Language learning is an important necessity of today's globalized society. Therefore, it is vital to provide the most effective methods for learning a foreign language. Through understanding how foreign language learning, cognitive load theory, learning modalities, and participants' physiological sex relate to one another, more effective…

In this study, Finnish ninth graders' and their school guidance counselors' views concerning ninth graders' perceptions of gender-appropriateness of occupations were examined. Special interest was placed on evaluating if ninth graders bring out any gender stereotypical perceptions regarding science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM)…