Gender And Attainment In Education

Question 1

What are the statistics on the differences between gender and achievement?

Answer 1

(2023)
32.3% of girls achieved top grades (7 and above)
17.7% of boys achieved top grades (7 and above)

Question 2

What is the functionalist perspective?

Answer 2

• gender is linked to male and female social roles
• what happen in education is a reflection of society

Question 3

What is the Marxist perspective?

Answer 3

Concerned with class inequalities so gender differences aren’t seen as significant

Question 5

What is the interaction it’s perspective?

Answer 5

• teachers and students share ideas about gender roles
• traditional gender patterns tend to be reproduced in schools through the formal and hidden curriculum

Question 6

What is the feminist perspective?

Answer 6

• the patriarchy is extended into schools from wider society
• girls systematically lose put in education

Question 7

What is the new right perspective?

Answer 7

• agree with functionalists
• concerned about the recent perceived failure of boys

Question 8

What is the view of postmodernists?

Answer 8

• tend to see gender as a choice
• the way children are forced into identifying with a gender is an unpleasant and aggressive form of social control

Question 9

What criticism did Weiner make about the relationship between gender and attainment?

Answer 9

Teachers are challenging gender stereotypes more than ever e.g sexist images being removed from textbooks

Question 10

What did Spender say about the type of attention boys receive in the classroom?

Answer 10

Boys receive more attention than girls but it is unproductive

Question 11

What are the 4 explanations for difference in subject choice?

Answer 11

1. Early socialisation
2. Gendered subject images
3. Peer pressure
4. Gendered career opportunities

Question 12

What did Elwood say about socialisation in relation to differences in subject choices?

Answer 12

Differences in socialisation causes boys and girls to interpret tasks differently and leads to different attitudes towards subjects

Question 13

What might peer pressure (in subject choice) be influenced by?

Answer 13

Gendered employment patterns

Question 14

What are some gender identity experiences?

Answer 14

• double standards
• verbal abuse
• male gaze
• male peer groups
• female peer groups
• teachers and discipline

Question 15

What did patcher theorise helps the maintenance of male power?

Answer 15

Name calling shapes gender identity and male power

Question 16

What did Mac and Ghaill find?

Answer 16

• male teachers would subtly tease male pupils for ‘behaving like girls’
• male teachers were more likely to accept bad language from males
• male pupils + teachers perceive female pupils + colleagues from a typically hegemonic masculine perspective
• the hidden curriculum have male overtones e.g that it reinforces traditional gender identities