Structural conditions and gendered educational choices
Gender differences in school, education and work are created and maintained through a combination of what gender means psychologically and motivationally, and the social structure at any given time . Denmark has a gender-segregated edu- cation system where the educational and vocational choices of young people largely correspond to their ideas of how they want to live their lives . Thus, it is mainly the plans for future employment that influence educational choices, including gendered educational choices . However, boys and girls do not have the same chances of fulfil- ling their educational wishes, and this is not just about education policy . Political priorities also come into play . In the article, I will address questions about priori- ties in education, admission requirements and guidance, as well as the require- ments for future competencies to illustrate how the structural conditions in the education system interact with gendered educational choicesHelle Rabøl Hansen:
Youth as a process of youthing?
We talk about the process of gendering, but can we talk about youth as a process of youthing? In the statistics on educational lack of well-being, young girls are in the majority . In this paper, the focus is on the girls who are suffering double-pressure . I ask the questions: Are educational conditions biased? Do cultural expectations rein- force the pressure the girls experience?
The paper analyses are dominating media discourse, which is cross-read with narratives from the girls who are living with the pressure .

Mette Lykke Nielsen, Mette Pless and Susanne Murning:
Motivation has become a central concept in Danish educational policy Background: Recently, motivation has become a central concept in Danish educatio- nal policy, as well as in debates on young people’s educational attainment . Today, young people are not only requested to enrol in – and complete – post-compulsory education, they are also expected to be motivated for and have a desire to learn (Pe- dersen 2011, Fendler 1998) .
Purpose: The purpose is to show how female and male students in upper seconda- ry education position themselves – and are positioned – as ‘motivated’ or ‘unmoti- vated’ students in classroom contexts . And how this is linked to historical and pre- sent societal discursive framings on gender and education .
Data material: The analyses are based on a large qualitative study on student motivation in upper secondary education (Nielsen et al . 2017) and will focus prima- rily on two qualitative focus group interviews: one focus group interview with

1-year students from STX and a focus group interview with two teachers and a ca- reer counsellor from the same institution . Inspired by the works of Beverly Skeggs (2004) we use the concept ‘motivation positioning’ . Using this concept, we place fo- cus on the complex, situated and ambiguous ways in which motivation is produced and gendered .
Conclusion: In the article, we show how social discourses on educational motivati- on are used by teachers and students as a practice of categorisation that limits some students’ possibilities of positioning themselves and being recognised as moti- vated and competent, whilst expanding those possibilities for other students .Ida Ebdrup:
‘The A-grade-girls’ has become a common term in the Danish school system
The term appears as a symbol of the ills that the ‘achievement culture’ and the ‘the competition state’ have led to . The debate and rhetoric about the A-grade-girls crea- te a story where achievement culture is linked solely to the female gender . This con- tributes to a stereotypic and generalising story about girls who perform well .
Schoolboys are rarely mentioned in these debates . This helps to generate a story that boys don’t have the same level of ambition and never feel pressured about get- ting high grades . This portrayal of the genders in the school system establishes a dichotomy where girls and boys are classified as two separate categories, and diffe- rences between the genders are over-emphasised .

Jens Christian Nielsen & Jesper Stilling Olesen:
Is a career in elite sport only for boys? On gendered positions in education and elite sports
A research project on sports classes and talented sports students shows that there are significant gender differences in how boys and girls orient themselves towards future careers . This is reflected both in their future perspectives on education and elite sport . Although initially there is no difference between the amount of their sports talent, boys are far more likely than girls to fully orientate themselves to- wards an elite sports career . Ten times as many boys as girls want a full-time care- er as professional athletes . Girls are, conversely, more likely to give priority to edu- cation . In the article, we will explore the gendered patterns that emerge in sports students’ priorities of education and elite sports in their perspectives on a future ca- reer . We will discuss what could be the possible causes for the gender differences and whether there are gendered issues at stake that can be changed . In conclusion, the results are reviewed in the light of research on gender, youth, elite sport and transition .

Steen Baagøe Nielsen:
‘My boyfriend would never choose this occupation!’ – Educational institu- tions as gendered and masculinising
This article discusses the ways research understandings of gender should be broa- dened to encapsulate the way educational institutions are historically gendered – and continuously are gendering their students . The theoretical approach of the ar- ticle draws up a possibility to combine dynamic (poststructuralist) understandings of ‘doing gender’ with more structural approaches that emphasise the way gender as a local construction taking place in a well-established institutional/educational context and settings will most often reflect well established patriarchal segregati- ons and hierarchical positionings . Based on interviews with male and female (BA) students of social pedagogy, I discuss the way the occupation and the qualifying education is historically placed within the gender system and the consequences of this for students who enrol .Tekla Canger:
Different strategies when encountering gender in school
In this article, I reflect upon different strategies when encountering gender in school . Taking my point of departure in an essentialistic, as well as a gender-neu- tral approach, I discuss the alternative of a gender-sensitive approach to pupils in school; an approach that will potentially make more pupils feel included in school, and that will strengthen the school’s obligation to prepare pupils for a society in which they must relate critically and with reflections upon phenomena taken for granted .
I argue that both an essentialistic approach, as well as a gender-neutral approach has built-in challenges in the form of gender blindness and construction of devian- ce . In answer to this, I unfold the notion of gender-sensitive pedagogy as an ap- proach that both acknowledges the existence of structural and societal gender ste- reotypes and gender biases and focuses on challenging these stereotypes and on equipping the pupils with tools that help them nuance and sharpen their focus on many ways of looking at gender .