About the Elephant in the Room

At the risk of being seen as not taking this too seriously, I imaginatively came up with the title: ’The Elephant in the Room' for my presentation for my application to study on the PhD. Anyone who works in education (in the classroom) is aware of the educational gap between boys and girls, however no one is really solving it because it's such a large and systemic problem that ‘the elephant’ is now part of the furniture... so much so it’s now been upcycled and has a lampshade on its head. The improvements in GCSE results over time have addressed some of the inequalities that have traditionally existed between ethnicity and class, however there is still an ‘elephant in the room’ in regards to gender. Ben Bradley during a House of Commons debate in 2020 stated: 'Boys perform markedly worse than girls, and among the most deprived children that effect is greatest. Across the board, a girl from a FSM background is now 52% more likely to go to university than her male equivalent.’ The difference between boys and girls is now wider than White and BAME pupils. The Higher Education Policy Institute in 2016 calculated if trends continue, a boy born in 2016 will be 75% less likely to attend university than a girl by the time he is 18. Now that's a big elephant to continue to ignore. My research will be carried out with practising teachers and other groups associated with schools, to lead on this question of how to bridge the attainment gap between boys and girls in a practical way. I will focus on investigating impact that is geared to change matters, rather than rehashing the overly researched background information that has produced very few tangible outcomes. For me, there is more than just an interest in the research for research sake; my goal is to further develop the teaching and learning process for all those currently working within schools today.