Gender - Boys Achievement

Question 1

What are 4 internal factors influencing boys achievement?

Answer 1

• boys and literacy
• the feminisation of education
• shortage of male primary teachers
• laddish subcultures

Question 2

Why might boys lack literacy skills?

Answer 2

• parents spend less time reading with sons

- of the reading undertaken by parents, most is done by the mother, as a result, reading seems ‘feminine’

Question 3

Why might leisure pursuits for both boys and girls result in lack of language?

Answer 3

Boys- football and computer games do not help develop language

Girls- involves communication and relationship building which do help develop language skills

Question 4

Since the 1980s what masculine jobs have seen a decline?

Answer 4

Heavy manufacturing, mining, steel working etc…

Question 5

Who identities a ‘crisis of masculinity’

Answer 5

Eirene Mitsos & Ken Browne (1998)

• decline in these sectors has lead to a ‘crisis of masculinity’
• without a prospect of getting a job, many w/c boys lose motivation to get qualifications, low self esteem

Question 6

Who claims that the feminisation of education leads to boys underachieving?

Answer 6

Tony Sewell(2006)
-schools do not nurture ‘masculine’ traits such as competitiveness and leadership
-instead they celebrate traits more closely associated with girls, such as attentiveness in class and methodical writing
-argument that coursework should be replaced with a single exam
“We have challenged the 1950s patriarchy… but we threw the boys out with the bathwater”

Question 7

Give 2 statistics about the shortage of primary school teachers

Answer 7

DfES (2007)
-only 16% of primary school teachers are male
YouGov (2007)
-39% of 8-11 year old boys have no lessons with male teachers despite many saying they concentrated better and worked harder with male teachers

Question 8

Who claimed that boys who appear to work hard were labelled as sissies, harassed, or subjected to homophobic abuse?

Answer 8

Epstein (1998)

Question 9

What did Francis in 2001 claim? (Laddish subcultures)

Answer 9

Boys were more concerned than girls about being labelled swots/nerds/ geeks etc

• in w/c culture, masculinity is equated with ‘tough’ manual work
• “real boys don’t work” - and if they do, they get bullied
• laddishness spreading and growing as boys try to construct themselves as ‘non-feminine’

Question 10

How does subject choice and gender identity affect achievement?

Answer 10

A fairly traditional pattern of ‘boys subjects’ and ‘girls subjects’ persist, for example, boys tend to chose maths and physics and girls tend to chose modern languages
-schooling also reinforces gender identity, both through the curriculum as well as through interactions between teachers and students

Question 11

The introduction of what restricted what?

Answer 11

The introduction of the national curriculum (1988) restricted pupil choice

Question 12

What are the 4 explanations of gender differences in subject choice?

Answer 12

• early socialisation
• peer pressure
• gendered career opportunities
• gendered subject images

Question 13

What did Ann Oakly in 1973 argue? (Early socialisation)

Answer 13

Sex refers to physical differences between males and females, gender refers to learned cultural differences

Question 14

What is gender role socialisation? Give examples

Answer 14

The process of learning behaviour expected of males and females in society
-boys and girls given:
•different clothes to wear
•different toys to play with
-boys rewarded for being active and girls for being passive by parents

Question 15

What is a gender domain?

Answer 15

Tasks and activities which boys and girls see as their ‘territory’ and therefore relevant to them

Question 16

Who did a study on gender domains? What did they find?

Answer 16

Patricia Murphy (1991)
gave children a task to design boats and vehicles and to write an estate agents advert for a house
-boys designed powerboats and weaponry with little living accommodations
-girls designed cruise ships with attention given to social and domestic factors
-boys designed sports cards and army vehicles, girls designed family cars
Estate agent adverts: boys focused on ‘man space’ like garages
Girls focused on the ‘womens sphere’ of the kitchen and décor

This shows that boys and girls pay attention to different details when tackling the same task, which may help to explain why they choose different subjects

Question 17

What is a gendered subject image? Give 2 examples of subjects and their image

Answer 17

The gender image that the subject ‘gives off’

• science: tends to be taught by men, boys monopolise the apparatus in the science labs
• computing: involves working with machines which are seen to ‘masculine’, less opportunities for group work (which women tend to favour)

Question 18

How can peer pressure affect subject choice?

Answer 18

• boys tend to opt out of dance and music of fear of attracting a negative response from peers
• sports are often considered more masculine, girls opt to take up sport have to deal with an image which contradicts the traditional female stereotypes
• boys consider girls ‘butch’ or ‘lesbian’ if they are more interested in sport than themselves

Question 19

How does gender career opportunities affect gender differences in subject choices?

Answer 19

-jobs tend to be ‘sex typed’
-women’s job often involve work similar to that performed by housewifes (childcare)
-women’s roles usually fall within the domains of clerical, secretarial, personal service a
•only 1/6 of males work in these industries
-sex typing affects perception of what jobs are possible and acceptable, moulding subject choices

Question 20

How do pupils experiences in school reinforce their gender and sexual identities?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

A rich vocabulary of abuse is one way in which gender identities are reinforced

Why might certain pupils experience verbal abuse?

Answer 21

GIRLS:
-boys use name calling to put down girls if they act or dress in certain ways ‘butch’
-boys call girls ‘slags’ or ‘sluts’ if they appear to be sexually available and ‘frigid’ if they don’t
BOYS:
-they use negative labels such as ‘gay’, ‘queer’, and ‘faggot’ are ways in which students police each other’s sexuality
-some boys are labelled as gay simply for talking to girls or being friendly to female teachers

Question 22

What do male peer groups use to reinforce their gender identity?

Answer 22

-use verbal abuse, especially in anti-school subcultures

Question 23

How does the role of class coincide with the male peer group?

Answer 23

• ‘macho’ w/c lads criticise or abuse w/c boys who work hard and aspire to m/c careers (dickhead achievers)
• m/c boys often try to appear to be effortlessly achieving working on the quiet

Question 24

What is the male gaze?

Answer 24

A visual aspect to how pupils control each other’s identities

Question 25

How do boys use the male gaze?

Answer 25

• male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects, making judgements about their appearance
• a form of surveillance, reinforcing hetero-masculinity and devaluing femininity
• boys tell and retell stories of sexual conquests, those who don’t are labelled as gay

Question 26

Who did a study on teachers and discipline? Who was it?

Answer 26

Chris Haywood & Mairtin Mac an Ghaill (1996)

• male teachers tell off boys for ‘acting like girls’ and tease them when they score lower than girls in tests
• teachers tend to ignore boys verbal abuse of girls and tell girls off for ‘attracting it’
• male teachers are often ‘protective’ of female staff, ‘rescuing’ them from disruptive classes

Question 27

How are double standards in sexual morality used?

Answer 27

-boys boast about sexual exploits, but call a girl a slag of slut if she does not have a steady boyfriend or dresses/ acts in a certain way

Question 28

What do feminists say about double standards?

Answer 28

It’s an example of out patriarchal society, justifying male power and devaluing women