Experience of school reinforce gender identities Flashcards
Symbolic capital - Archer (2010)
E - Archer argues accumulation of symbolic capital in school such as good grades often reinforces behavioral traits.
E - The school system rewards qualities like neatness, girls who excel may gain, girls seen as better.
E - Butler argues gender is performed and and can be reinterpreted. Even if schools reward these ‘feminine’ behaviors girls still have potential to act in ways that challenge these expectations.
Hyper heterosexual feminine identity
E - one girl spent £40 a week she earns from babysitting on her appearance - status to female peer group - avoid being called tramp.
E - Teachers saw this as a distraction for them engaging in education, define them as ‘not one of us’ which Bourdieu describes as ‘symbolic violence’. - harm done from denying someone symbolic capital.
E - Gill argues this perspective can flattens the complexity of girls ignoring fluidity.
GCSE & Coursework - Gorad (2015)
E - Gorad found gender gap in achievement was fairly constant from 1975 until 1989 when it increases sharply.
E - Reinforces gender differences in achievement by favoring typical ‘feminine’ behaviours.
E - Elwood (2005) although coursework has some influence, it is unlikely to be cause if gender gap as exams have more influence compared to coursework.
Decline of traditional mens jobs - Mitsos & Browne
E - Mitsos & Browne argues disappearances of traditional male jobs, such as manufacturing, leaves boys with fewer culturally sanctioned pathways.
E - This shift leads boys to a sense of marginalisation among boys in school where curriculum is often designed around skills that don’t align with labour market.
E - Connell argues despite economic changes a dominant form of masculinity remains persuasive. The school curriculum continues to privilege this ideal, leaving boys with an idea of more adaptive masculinity.
Shortage of male primary teachers - Yougov
E - Yougov - 39% of 8-11 year olds boys have no lessons with a male teacher. - 42% said it made them work harder having a male teacher.
E - This means boys rarely encounter male role models in the classroom who may embody alternative forms of masculinity.
E - Read argues it’s not a teachers gender that matters but is how they teach, boys don’t need male teachers to succeed.
‘Laddish subcultures’ - Epstein (1998)
E - Epstein examined way masculinity constructed and found if boys are seen as ‘swot’ they get labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobia.
E - This leads to them rejecting school so they are not seen as gay leading to their underachievement and girls succeeding.
E - Willis argues that they do it as they view education as irrelevant to their future working class roles - ‘counter school subculture’ - broader view.
