Gender and Differential Achievement

Question 1

What are four facts about gender and differential educational achievement?

Answer 1

• Girls get better results in primary school National Curriculum tests
• Girls get better results in nearly every subject at GCSE
• Girls are more likely to pass their A-Levels
• More women than men go on to university in the UK

Question 2

What are some factors inside school that explain why females now do better in education?

Answer 2

• Mitsos and Browne (1998) say teaching has been feminised. Women are more likely to be classroom teachers (positive role models)
• Textbooks and teaching resources has been changed and are less likely to stereotype girls into passive roles
• National Curriculum forced girls to do traditionally male subjects
• Swann and Graddol (1993) think that high female achievement is a result of the quality of interaction they have with their teachers. Most of the time teachers spend with girls is used to help with their work but most teacher time spent with boys is focussed on behaviour management
• Jackson (1998) says that schools label boys negatively. Boys are associated with poor behaviour which gives the school a bad name and with low achievement which lowers the school league table position (negative label = SFP)

Question 3

What does Archer (2006) say about females still facing problems at school?

Answer 3

• Archer (2006) argues that the current underachievement by boys in education masks the continuing problems that girls still face
• She claims that high-achieving Asian and Chinese girls get negatively labelled by teachers as robots who are incapable of independent thought
• She argues that black working-class girls are negatively labeled as loud and aggressive
• She concludes that the ongoing achievement of girls is ‘fragile and problematic’

Question 4

What factors outside of school explain why females now do better?

Answer 4

• Girls are socialised into ways of behaving that are well suited to classroom environments
• Policies such as Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act have helped to create more equal opportunities in wider society
• Sharpe (1994) found that girls’ priorities have changed. They now want careers and qualifications. More women go out to work so girls see positive role models in work - (want to be financially independent)
• The feminist movement caused a change in female expectations and made more people aware of inequality - People are more aware of stereotyping
• Changes in the labour market have created opportunities for women. Since the 1970s there has been a continual increase in the size of th service sector an a shrinking of the primary sector
• Changes in family structure have changed female aspirations - on average women now have children later in life

Question 5

Why do boys underachieve?

Answer 5

• Boys may be having an identity crisis. The rise of female independence, the decline of the breadwinner role for men and the rise in male unemployment might mean boys don’t see the point in education (anti school subculture)
• Interpretivists say that teachers have lower expectations of boys. Teachers may lead to a SFP of poor behaviour. Negative labelling may explain why theyre more disruptive
• The feminisation of teaching means that boys don’t have as many role modes in the classroom
• Reading can be seen as ‘girly’. Boys who avoid books may not develop vital communication skills

Question 6

How do subcultures help to explain differences in gender achievement?

HINT : WILLIS (1970s)

Answer 6

• Negative labelling and putting students into different streams or sets can cause some pupils to rebel against the schools values. They form subcultures. These can be pro-school or anti-school subcultures
• Willis (1970s) looked at why W/C kids get W/C jobs. He studied ‘the lads’ who rejected school and form an anti school subculture. They coped with their underachievement by having a subculture where education didnt matter and where having a laugh was more important
• Mac an Ghaill (1994) says that subcultures are difficult and there’s lots of different types. Boys can join a macho lad subculture because of a crisis of masculinity. Boys can join pro-school subcultures and be proud of academic achievement
• Fuller (1980) studied a group of African-Caribbean girls in London who formed a subculture that worked hard to prove negative labelling wrong

Question 7

What are different ways to explain gender and subject choice?

Answer 7

• Girls tend to choose essay-based A levels like English and RE. Boys tend to choose technical ones like Maths and Physics
• Subject choice may still be influenced by gender socialisation. The ideas of feminitity and masculinity can create different expectations and stereotypes of what pupls should study
• Kelly (1987) found that science is seen as a masculine subject. Boys dominante the science classroom
• Parental expectations may encourage students to follow what they see as the traditonal ‘normal’ choice for their gender. There’s a pressure to conform to a social norm
• Teachers may also have an effect on subject choice. Most physics teachers are male, meaning that there are more male than female role models within this subject.