Gender - Boys and Achievement

Question 1

Boys and Literacy

Answer 1

Gender gap result of boys poor literacy and language skills.

• Parents spend less time reading with their sons
• Boys leisure pursuits e.g football & computer games do little to improve communication skills while girls have a ‘bedroom culture ‘.

Question 2

Decline of men’s jobs

Answer 2

Decline in heavy industries since 1980 & less masculine employment led to identity crisis for WC with no chance of ‘proper job’

• undermines motivation and self esteem -> give up on getting qualifications
• however manual WC jobs require few qualifications thus unlikely that the decline demotivates boys to obtain qualifications.

Question 3

Feminisation of education

Answer 3

Sewell - schools now feminine institutions & does not nurture masculine identities such as competitiveness and leadership.
-sees coursework as major cause of gender differences in achievement as boys do better in final exams but girls do better in coursework.

Question 4

Shortage of male primary school teachers

Answer 4

Lack of strong positive role model

• 16% of primary school teachers are male
• 42% of boys said that male teachers make them work hard and better.

Question 5

Laddish subcultures

Answer 5

Epstein (S) examined the ways WC masculinity is constructed in schools. She found that WC boys who worked at school were labelled and subject to homophobic comments
-School work considered inferior and feminine -> losing masculinity (tough and manual work)