gender and educational differences Flashcards
Heaton and Lawson 1996
Argued that the hidden curriculum teaches patriarchal values in schools. They noted gender stereotypes were being reinforced through books, subject choice and gender division in labour.
Sue Sharp
Found that London schoolgirls had completely different aspiration in 1970s which included marriage and family to the 1990s which dramatically switched to career. She argues that there are a number of potential reasons for this but legislative changes such as the 1970 Equal Pay Act and the 1976 Sex Discrimination Act are likely to have played a part.
Smith 2011- gender and subject choice
Girls make up 70% of all psychology students whilst the percentage for sociology is even higher.
Colley 1998- factors outside the home for gender and subject choice
Colley found that subject choice was gendered and that there was a strong influence from family and peers who subscribe to strong gender stereotypes. This is a significant problem as they can lead to low status and low paid professions compared to boys.
Becky Francis
Research on gender, boys and learning showed that gendered expectations in the home could affect education. She found that while parental choice for boys was characterized by toys that involved machinery/construction , there was a tendency to steer girls towards feminine interests such as hairdressing. This evidences that canalisation affects education.
Argues that the school process reinforces and produces gender identities. Fitting in at school often involves adopting gender appropriate behaviour linked to stereotypes.
Mac an Ghail
researched male peer groups which reinforced the idea that working hard was unmasculine and uncool. Mac an Ghail found that male peer groups put boys under pressure to not take work seriously. Argues that there is a difference between social groups as w/c boys did not make an effort as part of it was not caring about school work however, m/c boys would try and present an image of effortless achievement.
Also argues that there is a crisis of masculinity due to a decline in traditional manual jobs which led to an identity crisis for w/c boys.
Weiner
criticises Heaton and Lawson due to arguing that gendered stereotypes have been removed from the classroom and textbooks.
Jackson
Believes that predominantly working class male adolescents may conclude that education and qualifications are irrelevant because they can see that the jobs they will be doing are unskilled or semiskilled at best. Jacksons research found that schools were dominated by a culture of hegemonic masculinity that valued toughness, power and competitiveness. Academic work was seen to be feminine and therefore uncool. Boys tended to mess around more than concentrate on work.
Also found that teacher expectations were lower of boys, especially working class boys, due to their laddish behaviour.
Wilkinson
Changes in society and increased opportunities or girls have led to a genderquake in which girls are now actively seeking an established career and economic stability. This is due to the feminisation of the workforce and the economy and changes in legislation which has made it easier to access jobs and opportunities.
Edwards and David
Argue that girls are socialised in the home to conform to societies norms and values which are replicated in the education system. However, boys mature more slowly because primary socialisation encourages them to be more boisterous.
Mitsos and Browne
discuss feminisation of education and girls having positive role models, with the rise of more female teachers (especially in primary schools).
Epstein
identifies a poor boys discourse that blames schools for failing to cater for boys. Teachers, the exam system and female concerns and interests ignore boys learning needs and fail to appreciate and understand their masculinity.
