Gender - Male

Question 1

Mitsos and Brown

Answer 1

Socialisation: Research points to the differences in achievement being down to differing ways in which the genders behave and spend their time (external)

Staff are not as strict with boys and have lower behavioural expectations

Question 2

Harris

Answer 2

Socialisation: Found boys to be less motivated and organised, which is a result of gender regimes (external)

Question 3

McRobbie

Answer 3

Socialisation: Boys are encouraged to be active while girls are encouraged to be passive - subscribing to a “bedroom culture” where reading and creativity are the norm (external)

Question 4

Mac an Ghaill

Answer 4

Socialisation: A decline of traditional male jobs has led to a crisis of masculinity where men are unsure of their future roles (external)

Subcultures: Male peer groups produced a range of different class based identities. The working class “macho” lads labelled other working class boys that were hard working “dickhead achievers”. The middle class achievers tried to project an image of effortless achievement, and were called “real Englishmen” (internal)

Question 5

Willis

Answer 5

Subcultures: Working class lads rejected the values of education such as hard work, discipline and respecting authority because they knew that they would end up in manual work and did not see the point of hard work and achievement (internal)

Question 6

Barber

Answer 6

Confidence: Boys tend to be over-confident of their ability, and girls under-confident, despite GCSE results showing the inverse