Education: gender, ethnicity and social class Flashcards
Reay (2001) GENDER
Primary school girls in the classroom: nice girls, the girlies, spice girls and tomboys were all gender related peer groups representing different femininities
Sharpe (1976) (1994) GENDER
In 1976 girls in school were focused on romance and motherhood.
In 1994 girls in schools were career focused and heavily invested in their education
Jackson (2006a) GENDER
Named boystrous girls: ‘Ladettes’
Sewell (2000) ETHNICITY
Found African-Caribbean anti-school sub-cultures directly went against teachers, Rebels would not follow (or do the opposite of) the teachers’ rules and challenge the teacher. Retreatists would ignore the teachers demands.
Shain (2003) ETHNICITY
Found that Asian girls who were victims of bullying formed a subculture called ‘gang girls’ in order to support and cope or even challenge the bullies
Willis (1997) SUBCULTURE
Anti school subcultures within schools were more likely to occur from underachieving WC boys who he named ‘Lads’ by Willis earlier in 1977.
Kehily & Nayak (1997) GENDER
Found that swearing and verbal insults brought status in working class male peer groups and was a norm
Mac & Ghaill (1994) GENDER
Crisis of Masculinity. Boys faced uncertain future as their role in society was no longer clear due to the depletion in the bread winner role.
Lees (1993) CLASS
Found work orientated girls were pro school and were typically white females from middle-class backgrounds with strong parental support
Hatcher (2006) CLASS
Educational system does not encourage working class success
Aggleton (1987) CLASS
Some middle class 6th form boys resisted middle class values of academic achievement and wanted ‘effortless achievement’
Blinkenstaff (2005) - Subject choice
Explains why girls might be reluctant to opt for STEM subjects: - girls lack innate talent in these subjects, girls have less interests in these subjects, there are few female role models in theses areas, teachers give more attention to boys in these classes.
Archer & Yamashati (2003) SUBCULTURE
Harkton Boys were an anti school/education subculture who wanted to maintain a bad boy image and refused to do school work as they feared being called a ‘pussy’ by their peers
Reay et al (2005) GENDER
shows how educationally successful women stress support offered by their families and emotional support of their fathers, particularly in latter school years.
Weiner (1995) GENDER
argues that teachers now challenge stereotypes and have removed sexist materials from resources.
Pirie (2001) GENDER
argued old O-Level exams was a boys exam with its ‘high risk, swot it all up for the final throw’ types of assessment.
Burns and Bracey (2001) GENDER
boys believed school work should be done at school, unlike girls who were prepared to draft and redraft assignments.
Hannan (2000) GENDER
girls spend their leisure time differently to boys. Boys = being active and Girls = talking. Puts girls an advantage as school is essentially a language experience.
Mitos and Browne (1998) GENDER
said teachers are not as critical with boys as with girls, they have lower expectations, expecting work to be rushed/ late and untidy (Alfie’s room) and expect them to be disruptive
Francis (2000) GENDER
said boys are no longer likely to consider themselves more able than girls as they did in the 70s and 80s. Boys are more likely to have unrealistic career expectations, not requiring exam success e.g. footballer
Epstein (1998) GENDER
blames schools for failing to cater for boys. Says schools should be made more masculine, attention from resources away from girls onto boys.
Carrington (2007) GENDER
found that the gender of teachers has no/ little impact on learning
Francis and Skelton (2005) GENDER
suggests boys are to blame for their own failure, getting into trouble, schools need stronger discipline/ more social control. The also recognise that boys are at risk, they are vulnerable, insecure and often have low self-esteem, schools must be sensitive about it.
Mirza (1992) ETHNICITY
black girls displayed positive self-esteem and focused on achieving academic success. Not labelled negatively by teachers, but may teachers had misplaced intensions which held the girls back. Irish girls in her study saw their future as homemakers, child-carers, part-time workers , show a clear difference in ethnic groups.
DfES (2007) ETHNICITY
- only 24% of white male pupils on free school meals gained 5 A* - C grades
- white and Asian pupils on average achieved higher than black pupils
- Amongst Asians Indians were top achievers and did better than Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who were at the bottom.
However they also said that in all ethnic groups MC do better than WC so class overrides ethnicity
The Sawn Report (1985) ETHNICITY
says language differences have little impact on achievement . Chinese and Indian still do much better than White British children in education.
Bernstein (1975) ETHNICITY
‘socio-linguistics’ says immigrants speak in restricted code, limited use of English cannot comply with the elaborate code of MC teaching.
Murray (1984) New Right Extremist ETHNICITY
says African-Caribbean Lone-Parenthood is the blame. Lack of male role models, mothers struggle to socialise children.
Noon (1993) ETHNICITY
sent identical letters to 100 top UK companies but altered the names ‘Evan’ and ‘Patel’, replies to white candidates were more helpful and informative.
Wright (2006) ETHNICITY
black boys were more outgoing and physically aggressive than white boys. Teachers described a special uniform of dreadlocks/ scarves, brought attention to themselves, lead to differential treatment.
Coard (2005) ETHNICITY
black culture and history taught to be primitive and how white people civilised groups. White connected to ‘good’ and ‘pure’ while black is connected to ‘evil’
Gillborn (1997) ETHNICITY
Marketisation of education puts ethnic minorities at a disadvantage with who they enrol. Criticism:
- many schools value Asian pupils, come from families who value education
- schools have to enrol a certain percentage from catchment area.
Bernstein (1961) CLASS
the forms of communication WC were most at home with was not required by the school.
- Restricted code = short-handed speech based around friends/ family, detail ommitted
- Elaborate code = meanings made more explicit (can be understood by everyone)
MC socialised into both, teachers used elaborate, WC at disadvantage
Douglas (1964) CLASS
‘The Home and the School’ children living in ‘unsatisfactory conditions’ scored lower in ability and reading tests than those in unsatisfactory. Overcrowding can lead to ill health, tiredness = irritability at school
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1961) CLASS
studied effects of teacher definitions in Mexican school. School teachers were told a group of students were 'spurters' (unknown to them they were selected at random) and were likely to make rapid progress. A year later the 'spurters' made more progress than their class mates. Concluded progress down to the way we define people. - Criticism: methodology questions IQ tests used now dismissed as sub-standard, replication got mixed results.
Sugarman (1970) CLASS
Gratification. MC occupations provide more opportunity for advancement (promotion). Deferred gratification - long term goals, benefits later. WC valued present-time orientation and Immediate gratification - living for moment, little advancement.
Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz (1994) CLASS
studied effects of parental choice and competition between schools. Marketisation created competition, shift in emphasis from student need to performance, labelling = more likely to accept MC from well-off areas. Parental choice:
- skilled and privilaged choosers = strong motivation, fight for best schools
- semi-skilled choosers = can’t ‘engage with the market’ social social skills to fight
- disconnected choosers = not involved, WC/underclass, value children happiness over performance
