Unfair differentiation, fragmented interventions, and gender reinforcement: a qualitative study of how students experience teachers’ school climate work on gender

Characteristics of the school climate are crucial because they can influence students’ academic achievement, wellbeing, and interpersonal relationships, including peer aggression. Teachers play a significant role in promoting a positive school climate grounded in care, fairness, support, and responsiveness. However, qualitative research on how students experience and reflect upon their school climate remains limited. In this qualitative study, we explored students’ perspectives on student-teacher relationships, school climate, and gender. Fifty-nine focus group interviews were conducted with students in grades 1–9 (ages 7–15 years) from two schools in Sweden. The data were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. The findings revealed that students experienced a gender-normative teacher practice in everyday student-teacher interactions and in teachers’ broader efforts to shape the school climate. This included gender reinforcement, fragmented interventions in student-to-student incidents, and unfair differentiation in classroom management practices. From the students’ perspective, the qualitative findings illustrate how taken-for-granted gender norms may at times influence teachers to engage in interactions and practices that constrain gender identities, reinforce inequality, and potentially undermine a supportive school climate.