External Factors: Boys' underachievement Flashcards
Boys’ poorer literacy skills
Boys are much more likely to start school with a lower reading age than girls which puts them at a disadvantage straight away.
Evidence suggests that boys are less likely to spend their leisure time in ways which complement their education & contribute to educational achievements.
Women are more likely to read than men, & mothers are more likely than fathers to read to their children.
Boys’ poorer literacy skills A03
Boys are therefore less likely to have same-sex role models to encourage them to read. As such, poor language & literacy skills are likely to affect boys’ performance across a wide range of subjects.
The decline of ‘traditional’ male jobs
The decline in male manual work may result in working class boys lacking motivation. Mitsos & Browne argue that this decline in male employment opportunities has led to a crisis of masculinity. Many boys now believe that they have little chance of getting a ‘proper job’. This undermines boys’ self-esteem & motivation and so they give up trying to gain qualifications.
The decline of ‘traditional’ male jobs
it should be noted that the decline has largely been in traditional manual working class jobs, many of them unskilled or semi skilled.
Traditionally, many of these jobs would have been filled by working class boys with few if any formal school qualifications. It therefore seems unlikely that the disappearance of such jobs would have much of an impact on boys’ motivation to gain qualifications.
Unrealistic expectations
Research indicates that boys are often surprised when they fail exams & tend to put their failure down to bad luck rather than a lack of effort.
Francis points out that boys are more likely to have career aspirations that are not only unrealistic but often require few formal qualifications, e.g professional footballer. Girls’ aspirations, however, tend to require academic effort, e.g. teacher, doctor, & therefore they have a commitment to schoolwork.
Parents are said to often have have lower expectations of boys; they are less likely to check their homework & push them to achieve academic success.
Unrealistic expectations A03
If boys are not actually aware that they need to put more effort into their work & their career aspirations do not require academic qualifications, both of these lead to less commitment to school work & therefore to lower achievement.
Alongside this, if parents are less likely to push boys into completing work, combined with the lower expectations of teachers (showing a relationship between both internal & external factors), boys are often simply left to underachieve.
Lack of male role models at home
With over 25% of children brought up in single parent families many boys lack a male presence in their lives. Moreover, the more unsociable hours worked by some men means that fathers often do not have time with their sons to help with homework, read or give them encouragement in sport or other activities.
A03: The lack of a male role model to give boys confidence in their ability to achieve well at school & to encourage future work aspirations can lead many not to try at school or to gain a feeling of status from their peers rather than from education.
Culture/lifestyle
Boys are said to have a more active lifestyle outside of school, based on ‘hanging out’ with mates in parks or on the street, playing football & computer games. This makes it harder for boys to use their rooms as a place to study, complete homework & revision for exams. In contrast, teenage girls are said to have a ‘bedroom culture’, in which the bedroom becomes the centre of their social activity. Reading, use of social networks, watching TV & listening to music are based in the bedroom & this makes it easier for girls to use their rooms for academic activities
Culture/lifestyle A03
Boys’ activities make it harder for them to concentrate on academic activities such as homework & revision for exams.
Much of school life is about sitting down & listening or focusing on a task with limited activity which is said not to suit boys. There is also less room for verbal communication & reasoning compared with girls which can limit boys’ ability to analyse & evaluate under exam conditions.
