XXX Education - Gender - XXX

Question 1

What are the 4 external factors affecting girls achievement in education?

Answer 1

• The impact of feminism (equality changes has changed girls self image and ambition)
• Changes in the family (more female headed lone parent families provides girls with a financially independent role model)
• Changes in women’s employment (better career opportunities and changing attitudes)
• Girls changing ambitions (Sue Sharpe found that girls from 1990’s see their future as an independent woman in paid work in comparison to 1970’s where they saw their futures as dependent of a husband).

Question 2

What are the 6 internal factors affecting girls achievement in education?

Answer 2

• Equal opportunities polices (GIST and WISE, national curriculum)
• Positive role models in schools (more women in authoritarian roles in schools provides girls with something to aspire to)
• GCSE’s and coursework (Girls do better in coursework, Gorard found that the gender gap was consistent from 1975 until 1988 when GCSE’s and coursework was introduced)
• Teacher attention (Swann and Graddol found that boys get more negative attention but girls get more positive)
• Challenging stereotypes in curriculum (sexist images removed from books)
• League tables (Jackson notes that league tables has improved opportunities for girls as schools would rather have high achieving girls than low achieving boys).

Question 3

What are the two feminist views on girls achievement?

Answer 3

Liberal feminists - celebrate progress made and believe there is more to come. They believe it is a result of equal opportunity polices, positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes.

Radical feminists - recognises girls are achieving more but say that the system remains patriarchal.

Question 4

What are the factors 5 affecting boys achievement?

Answer 4

• Poorer literacy skills (DCSE say this is main reason for gender gap. Result of girls ‘bedroom culture’).
• Decline of traditional men’s jobs (‘identity crisis for men’, as a result not working hard in education)
• Feminisation of education (Sewell says that schools do not nurture masculine traits such as competitiveness and leadership but celebrate feminine qualities such as attentiveness and methodological working).
• Shortage of male primary school teachers (39% of boys say they have never had a male teacher. Boys also said male teacher makes them behave better and work harder)
• Laddish subcultures (Epstein found boys will be labelled ‘sissies’ if appeared to be swots. As w/c subcultures see masculinity as being tough and school work is seen as feminine so they reject school).

Question 5

What is Archer’s hyper - heterosexual feminine identity?

Answer 5

Supports idea that class difference more important than gender. 
Says w/c girls spend more effort on making the most 'desirable' look. This bought them status from friends and avoided being made fun of for wearing wrong brand. This caused conflict with school as they were defined as incapable of educational success (self - fulfilling prophecy)

Question 6

What factors 5 affect subject choice and gender identity?

Answer 6

• Gender role socialisation (encouraged to do different things e.g reading tastes - Murphy and Elwood, boys read informative books, girls read stories)
• Gender domains (Browne and Ross, gender domains result of early experiences and expectations. Murphy found boys and girls pay attention to different details which affect subject choice)
• Gendered subject images (Kelly argues science seen as boys subject as teachers are more likely to be men, way taught appeals to boys)
• Gender identity (Dewer found that girls were labelled ‘lesbian’ or ‘butch’ if they picked a subject which feel out of gender domain)
• Single sex schooling (pupils in single sex schools hold less of a strict stereotype on subject choices so tend to make different decisions - Diane Leonard)

Question 7

What are 3 factors which affect gender identity within schools?

Answer 7

• Double standards (Sue Lees - double standard for boys to boast about sexual exploits but girls are labelled ‘slags’).
• Male peer groups (Mac an Ghail - class based gender identities - macho lads, dickhead achievers and real Englishmen. Also described male gaze)
• Teachers and discipline (Mac an Ghail - male teachers tell boys off for behaving like girls).

Question 8

What is a ‘boffin identity’?

Answer 8

Raley found that, usually those who want to be educationally successful, take an asexual identity (showing no interest in boyfriends, fashion etc) and as a result, are labelled ‘boffins’.
They came back by calling w/c girls ‘chavs’.