Gender in Secondary Students' Creative Writing: Changes in Representation Over Time

Abstract

This empirical and feminist study seeks to contribute to social change and justice. It examines student creative writing in one state school magazine in This last finding is of particular significance because although greater female representation is readily observable at the relatively simple levels of lexis and text, the concerning counterpoint of increasingly unagentic female representation is less immediately apparent. As this study shows, however, a proportional reduction in agency can be gauged and evidenced when more complex but still accessible techniques of semantic and contextual analysis are utilised. The study argues that this, in turn, has implications for teachers who wish to contribute to gender justice as they work with students and colleagues to resource, model, explain, and critique language use. In addition to its feminist and educational implications, the study's methods and findings suggest areas for future research into textual representations in many other social justice contexts.