Topic 4- Education Flashcards
What is the current gender gap in achievement?
Girls have overtaken boys in education
Starting school- at the end of year 1, girls were ahead of boys by 7%-17% in all 7 areas of learning
Key stage 1-3 : girls excel at literacy but are still ahead of boys by a narrower gap in maths and science
GCSE: theres is a 10% difference
As/ A level- more narrow but girls still do better
Vocational subjects- girls achieve distinctions more
What are the external factors to girls achievement?
1) the impact of feminism
2) changes in family
3) changes in womens employment
4) girls changing attitude
How does the impact of feminism affect gender differences in education?
Feminism has improved womens rights and opportunities
McRobbie- study comparing magazines from 1970s and 1990s and found a change from the importance of marriage to strong independent women.
How does changes in the family affect gender differences in education?
Changes in family structure has allowed for strong independent women as role model for girls, resulting in them wanting to achieve educational success
Rise in divorce has made girls realise it is unwise to rely on husbands to provide
How does changes in women’s employment affect gender differences in education?
1970- illegal to pay women less than men for the same work
Women in paid work has increased from 53% to 67% from 1971 to 2013
Women are ‘breaking through the glass ceiling’ obtaining high level and managerial jobs
How is changing girls attitude affect gender differences in education?
Sharpe- interviewed girls in the 1970s and 1990s and saw a shift in how they see their future
1974- low expectations, prioritised love, marriage and children
1990s- girls prioritised their career
Fuller- found educational success became apart of girls identity
Beck and Beck-gernsheim - linked the change in attitude to a trend in individualism, it is apart of our self project
What is a criticism of external factors to why girls achieve?
Reay- limited aspirations of w/c girls as they perceive jobs available being limited.
What are the internal factors to why girls achieve more in education?
1) equal opportunities policies
2) positive role models
3) GCSE and course work
4) teacher attention
5) challening stereotypes in education
6) selection and league tables
How does equal opportunities policies link to girls achievement in education?
Feminist ideas have impacted the education system and policies.
GIST ( girls into science/ technology) and WISE ( women into science/ engineering encourage girls in these fields.
Boaler- sees the impact of equal opportunities policies as a key reason for changes in girls achievement.
How does positive role models link to girls achievement in education?
An increase of female teachers and head teachers, showing women can achieve positions of importance
This influences girls.
How does GCSE and coursework link to girls achievement in education?
Gorard- claims the gender gap is due to the change is assessments as the gap changed at the time of the introduction of GCSES and coursework.
How does teacher attention link to girls achievement in education?
They interact with boys and girls differently
Francis- boys were disciplined more harshly and felt picked on by teachers who has low expectations of them
Swann- boys dominate class discussions, girls are better at listening, teachers respond more positively to girls
How does challenging stereotypes in the curriculum link to girls achievement in education?
Removal of gender stereotypes from learning material has removed a barrier to girls learning
Weiner- sexist images and stereotypes have been removed giving girls more positive images of what women can do
How does selection and league tables link to girls achievement in education?
Jackson- high achieving girls are more attractive to schools, they are recruited by good schools and more likely to do well
Slee- boys are less attractive to schools due to behaviour difficulties, they are 4x more likely to be excluded
What are feminist views on girl’s achievement?
Liberal- celebrate the process so far, believe further progress will be made and view education as meritocratic
Radical- the system is still patriarchal and conveys the message it is a ‘mans world’. Sexual harassment of girls, girls subject choice, male head teachers in secondary schools
Weiner- secondary school history is a ‘women free zone’.
How does identities, class and gender achievement link together?
Archer- there is a conflict between working class girls identity and the ethos of school
W/c Girls create a sense of self through :
1) hyper-hetrosexual feminine identity - girls spend time effort and money into making their feminine identity. These girls were grouped together and suffered symbolic violence through ‘othering’.
2) having a boyfriend- this was symbolic capital to girls, but got in the way of school work.
3) being loud- loud feminine identities didn’t meet the ideal pupil, resulting in conflict between the teachers and students
However evans found some w/c girls wanted to go university to help their familes, their motivations reflects their caring identities
What are external factors to boys achievement?
Boys and literacy-
1)mothers spend less time reading with boys, reading is seen as feminine, boys done have ‘bedroom culture’ the way girls do.
2) globalisation and decline of traditional mens jobs- manufacturing has relocated overseas which were dominated by men.
Mitsos and browne- argue this led to an identity crisis for men.
What are criticisms to external factors to why boys underachieve?
Policies have been introduced to try improve boys achievement- national literacy strategy, reading champions using male role models
Decline in manufacturing jobs ( working class manual jobs), needed no qualifications therefore is unlikely it has impacted boys achievement
What are internal factors to boys achievement in education?
1) feminisation of education
2) shortage of male primary school teachers
3) Laddish subculture
How does the feminisation of education link to boys achievement in education?
Sewell- boy fall behind because of the curriculum is feminised. School doesn’t nurture masculine traits such as competitiveness or leadership. Coursework benefits girls
How does shortage of male primary school teachers link to boys achievement in education?
A lack of male role models is said to be a cause of boys underachievement.
Yougov- 39% of 8-11 year old boys hav no lessons with a male teacher
How does laddish subculture link to boys achievement in education?
Epstein- looked at how much masculinity is constructed and found w/c boys were labelled as sissies and subjected to homophobic abuse.
Schoolwork is seen feminine and as a result they reject it.
What are criticisms of feminism?
Argue policies that promote gender equality are no longer needed, girls are no succeeding at boys expense
What does ringrose say?
She argues that these views have contributed to a moral panic about boys achievement.
What are trends in gender subject choice?
1) In regards to DT girls are more likely to pick food tech and boys are more likely to pick graphics
2) at A level, boys pick maths/ physics and girls pick english/ sociology
3) only 1 in 100 childcare apprentices are boys
What is gender role socialisation?
Internal- byrne- teachers encourage boys to be ‘tough’, whilst girls are encouraged to be quiet and helpful
Murphy and elwood- this leads to differen subject choice as boys read hobbies books and girls read stories.
What are gender domains?
Browne and ross- kids are more confident to do tasks that fit their gender domain, doing a maths test on cars or cooking
How are subject choices gendered?
Kelly- argues science is seen as a male subject as science teachers are more likely to be men, boys dominate the lab in lessons
How does gender identity and peer pressure link to subject choice?
Paechter- sport is seen as the male domain, girls who are sporty have to cope with an image that contradicts stereotypes.
Dewar- studied an American college and found male pupils called girls ‘bitch’ or ‘lesbian’ if they engaged in sport
How are career opportunities gendered?
1) Women are concentrated in a narrow range of occupations
2) there are preconceived notions on what jobs are acceptable for boys and girls
Explain pupils sexual and gender identities
Lees- identifies a double standard of sexual morality, boys boast about sexual exploit and girls get called ‘slag’. Promiscuity amongst girls attracts negative labels.
Connell- identifies vocab as a way to reinforce gender identities. Boys name calling.
The male gaze
Mac and ghaill- the way male teachers and pupils look at girls, seeing them as sexual objects, this coincides with boys boasting about it to reinforce masculinity .
Teachers
Haywood, mac, ghaill - male teachers told boys off for acting like girls and blamed girls for attracting verbal abuse
Askew and ross- male teachers rescued female teachers from disruptive pupils
Explain male peer groups
They use verbal abuse to reinforce masculinity
Willis- boys who wanted to do well were labelled as feminine and gay
Mac and ghaill- macho w/c lads ignored the boys who worked hard
Explain female peer groups
Archer- w/c girls gain symbolic capital from their female peers by having a hyper-heterosexual identity
Ringrose- being popular was crucial to w/c girls
Idealised identity- loyalty to friends and being non competitive
Sexualised identity- competing for boys in the dating culture
What does osler say about policy impact?
1) focus on failing boys ignores the problem of w/c and ethic minority pupils
2) focussing on achievement ignores things such as sexual harassment
Explain intersectionality
Social class- the gap between gender is similar when they are from the same class. Difference between boys and girls in the same social class is rarely greater than 12 percentage points, whereas from different social classes its 44.
Ethnicity- the gender gap between black Caribbean students is the largest
