Dr Claire Charles

Since her own adolescence, Claire has sought to understand constructions of gender and sexualities, and how the school system mediates these constructs. As a former English teacher, and now sociologist of education, Claire’s research program advances understanding of how schools and young people - often those in highly privileged contexts - engage with social justice. She leads the current research project ‘Understanding gender perspectives amongst elite private boys’ school alumni: 1970-present’ working with colleagues Lucinda McKnight and George Variyan.

Claire's work has illuminated the identity work of girls attending elite private schooling, and generates new questions about the intersections of class, gender and schooling, by taking theories commonly used outside the elite school context and putting them under scrutiny. The theoretical resources and methodologies that inform her work are drawn from feminist work with ‘the posts’ and new materialism. Rethinking these theories will help schools and their students to create new ways to live together well, beyond harmful gendered binaries.

Claire is a member of Deakin University’s Strategic Research Centre in Education - Research for Educational Impact (REDI). Her book, Elite girls' schooling, social class and sexualised popular culture was published by Routlege in 2014.

She has published in the following world-leading international journals: The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; Feminist Theory; Teaching and Teacher Education; Journal of Youth Studies; British Journal of Sociology of Education; Critical Studies in Education.