5.3 Gender Differences Boys And Achievement Flashcards
What did the DCSF 2007 think ?
The gender gap is mainly thr result of boys poorer literacy and language skills. Some reasons for this would be:
-Parents may be less likely to read to their sons.
- Boys are more likely to engage in other hobbies such as football which doesn’t help to develop their language.
- Girls tend to have more bedroom culture where they stay in and talk to freinds.
Which policies has the government introduced to improve boys skills?
Raising boys achievement project- involves a range of teaching strategies, including a single sex teaching.
National Literacy strategy- includes focus on improving boys reading.
The reading champions schemes- uses male role models celebrating their own reading interests.
Playing for success-uses football and other sports to boost learning skills and motivation amongst boys.
The dad and sons campaign- encourages fathers to be more involved with their sons education.
Recruitment campaigns- aim to attract more men into primary school teaching.
Globalisation and the decline of traditional men’s jobs:
Since the 1980s there has been a significant decline in heavy industries such as iron and steel, ship building.
Steel worker :
male 93.6%
Female 6.4%
What do Mitsos and Browne claim?
That this decline in male employment opportunities has led to an identity crisis for men.
Epstein1998
Examined the way masculinity was constructed within school. She found that boys are more likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be ‘swots’.
In a working class culture masculinity means being tough and doing manual work doing school work is seen as feminine and inferior therefore boys reject school work avoid being called gay.
Francis 2001
Found that boys were more concerned than girls about being labelled as swots as this label was a threat to their masculinity. Laddish subculture is becoming more widespread - boys are becoming laddish to construct themselves as non feminine.
McVeigh 2001
Notes that the similarities in boys and girls achievement are greater than the differences, especially when compares to class or ethnic patterns. For example, a DfES 2007 study found that the class gap in achievement at GCSE is three times wider than the gender gap.
