internal factors and gender Flashcards
How have equal opportunities policies led to girls’ achievement?
- Policymakers and teachers are aware of gender stereotyping when it comes to subjects
- GIST (Girls Into Science and Technology) and WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) - encourages girls to pursue careers in non-traditional areas
- National Curriculum - removed gender divisions within subjects - equal opportunities for boys and girls in education
- Boaler (1998) - Gender barriers have been removed - education is more meritocratic - girls achieve better than boys
How have positive role models in schools led to girls’ achievement?
- Women in senior positions e.g. teachers and headteachers become role models for female pupils - shows that girls can achieve positions of importance and have non-traditional goals to aim for.
% of female heads in 1992 vs 2020 - 22% vs 40% in secondary schools; 71% vs 74% (primary)
What percent of teachers are female in primary and secondary school?
2012 - 86% women in primary schools, 61% in secondary
How has the introduction of GCSEs and coursework in 1989 led to girls’ achievement and boys underachievement?
Gorard (2005) - gender gap in achievement was consistent from 1975 to 1989 when coursework was introduced - boys underachievement is ‘a product of the changed assessment of assessment
Mitsos and Browne (1998) - Girls do better than boys in coursework as they care more about presentation, spend more time over their work, better at meeting deadlines and are more likely to bring the right materials to school.
- GCSEs - greater use of oral exams which girls to do better in because of their better developed language skills
What are two other explanations for why girls do better in school than boys due to GCSEs and coursework?
Gender role socialisation in the family - girls are encouraged to be more neat and patient - achieve greater success than boys
Elwood (2005) - Coursework is not the sole cause over the gender gap in achievement as exams have more influence over final grades than coursework.
How does teacher attention affect gender differences in achievement?
Swann - Boys dominate class discussions whereas girls are better at listening and cooperating with others. Therefore teachers respond more positively to girls and give them encouragement than boys - may leas to self fulfilling prophecy
Francis (2001) - Boys get more attention because they were disciplined more than girls and felt targeted by teachers
How does marketisation lead to girls’ achievement?
Jackson (1998) - Introduction of league tables - girls are perceived as being higher achievers - they are more attractive to better schools and receive a better education - high grades (SFP)
Slee (1998) - Boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties and 4x likely to be excluded - bad for a school’s reputation - ‘rough tough’
How does Weiner (1995) explain how challenging stereotypes on the curriculum improved girls’ achievement?
Since the 1980s, the school curriculum has made efforts to remove gender stereotypes e.g. physics books showing girls as frightened by science - resulted in presenting girls with a more positive picture of what they can achieve in life
What are the differences between the liberal feminist view on the improvement of girl’s education vs radical feminist?
Liberal - Celebrate the successes made so far and believe further progress can be made through equal opp policies, encouraging female role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotypes
Radical - education system is still largely patriarchal as girls are still getting sexually harassed, still limits girls’ subject choices, male teachers are more likely to become heads at secondary than women, women are underrepresented in the curriculum e.g. Weiner (1993) history - ‘Woman free-zone’
Which sociologist stated that w/c girls had to choose between symbolic capital or educational capital?
Archer
According to Archer, why did girls create hyper heterosexual feminine identities?
To gain symbolic capital from peers through having boyfriends and adopting loud identities (outspoken and independent)
What was the ideal female pupil according to Archer?
Passive, de-sexualised and m/c
What was the effect of adopting a hyper heterosexual feminine identity?
Symbolic violence - schools would punish the girls for having the wrong appearance by violating the dress code or by being too outspoken - not deemed worthy of respect
Can working-class girls be successful in education?
Yes, but not for themselves but to provide for their family (Evans 2009) - reflection of working-class feminine identity - being local = w/c habitus (2010); the caring aspect of w/c feminine identity led to them staying at home.
What was the issue for working-class girls when it came to affording to go to university? (Evans)
Often lived at home and getting into dept because of how expensive university is limited their choices of university and the ‘market value’ of their degree (employability)
