My research explores aspects of gender and education. Questions I investigate include: how do learner and gender identities intersect? What motives 'laddish' behaviours? What are the advantages and disadvantages of single-sex and co-educational schools or classrooms? How do fears operate in education, and with what effects? Why is 'effortless achievement' so appealing, and is it gendered?

I have also undertaken research on the doctoral examination process, especially the viva.

All aspects of gender and education. For example,single-sex and co-educational learning environments, girls' in- and out-of-school lives,concerns about boys' 'underachievement', constructions of gendered learner identities, gender and teacher identities, gender and the curriculum, gendered identities in Higher Education.

Social psychology of teaching and learning, especially motives for learning or not learning, fear of failure, how classroom environments and peers shape approaches to learning and learner identities.

Fear in education - the effects of fear onall aspectsof school and university life.

My research is guided by an overarching interest in gender issues in education, with particular interests in single-sex and mixed-sex learning environments, fears of failure, and constructions and performances of 'laddish' masculinities and femininities. Between 2003-2005 I undertook a project exploring boys' and girls' motives for 'laddish' behaviours. A book from this project - 'Lads' and 'Ladettes' in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure - was published in 2006 by Open University Press. This was awarded first prize for books published in 2006 by the Society for Educational Studies (SES). I recently edited a book (with Carrie Paechter and Emma Renold) entitled Girls and Education 3-16: Continuing Concerns, New Agendas, that was published in January 2010 by Open University Press. I am currently researching fear in education.

I have also conducted research on the PhD examination process in Britain and published (with Penny Tinkler, 2004) The Doctoral Examination Process: A Guide for Students, Examiners and Supervisors (Open University Press).

Watch a video (Carolyn Jackson talks about single-sex schools and her research interests)

Watch a video (Carolyn Jackson talks about single-sex classes in co-educational schools)

Gender and Education

Social Psychology of Education