Boys Gender and Schooling > Issues for schools > Lifting literacies >

An integrated approach

To address concerns about boys and literacy in your school, first investigate which students are most at risk. Many boys do well in literacy, but Indigenous boys and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds are often at particular educational risk, as are girls from these groups.

Some seemingly sensible strategies, such as providing more male role models, do not always produce sustained improvement - the issues are usually complex and factors other than gender need to be considered too. Many of the strategies that will improve outcomes for boys in difficulty also help girls at educational risk, indeed all students.

A focus on what we teach - curriculum - and the way we teach - pedagogy - can improve outcomes for all students.

School communities which have adopted an integrated approach have been most successful in achieving sustained improvement and avoiding 'add on' strategies that are resource- and work- intensive. Such an approach combines:

collaboration
reflection
a focus on Productive Pedagogies and
the multiliteracies agenda of Literate Futures.

A good example of this approach is the Which boys? Which girls? Literacy and students at educational risk project.

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Queensland Government