In the public debate Norwegian schools are criticized for being feminized. But according to Professor Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen, it is not the schools that are poorly suited to boys – it is the girls who are better suited to the demands of modern working life.

“It’s about time that we explore what includes women in the ICT field and stop focusing on what excludes them,” says Knut Holtan Sørensen, who recently published a book on the topic.

Physics has a reputation as being only for the stereotypical nerds. According to science education researcher Maria Vetleseter Bøe, that is unfortunate both for the field and for everyone who misses out on the chance to find out how much fun physics is.

Boys in primary school talk about their feelings and hold hands. And they are very, very concerned about their bodies and appearance.

Norwegian textbooks juxtapose a positive, liberal Norwegian sexuality with a negative non-Norwegian, often Muslim, sexuality. And nobody agrees on what racism entails or how the topic can be taught in the classroom.

There is no doubt that boys and girls perform differently at school. But simply looking at gender in order to understand why is not enough.

Why do we make the choices that we do? Are we born this way or have we become this way? Behavioural economists look for answers through economic and math experiments in the laboratory.

According to a new doctoral thesis, the answer to why pupils perform differently in school is not found by looking at girls and boys as separate groups.