Gender differences continued

1
Gender differences continued
2
Internal factors Girls achievement

• Equal opportunities policies
• In recent years there has been an emphasis on
  equal opportunities in schools.
• Policies like GIST (girls in science and
  technology) and WISE (women into science and
  engineering), aimed to encourage girls into areas
  that were traditionally seen as male areas.
• The introduction of the national curriculum in
  the 1988 Education Reform Act, also made it
  possible for everyone to study the same
  compulsory subjects.

• Positive role models in schools
• In recent years there has been an increase in the
  proportion of women occupying the role of Head
  teacher
• These can act as positive role models for girls
  and something to strive for and to see other
  roles for them that are different from the
  housewife role
• Primary schools in particular have become
  feminised with mostly female staff. This could
  have an impact in the gender role socialisation
  process

3
Internal factors continued

• Challenging stereotypes in the classroom
• Some sociologists would argue that the removal of
  stereotypes from textbooks have helped remove
  barriers to girls learning
• Gaby Weiner(1995) argues that since the 1980s
  teachers have begun to challenge stereotypes
• Teachers attention and classroom interaction
• Dale Spender (1983) found that teachers spend
  more time interacting with boys. However teachers
  tended to interact with girls in a more positive
  way as they were seen a more co-operative. This
  could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy

• GCSE and Coursework
• The introduction of GCSE (1988) brought with it
  coursework
• This change has been argued to benefit girls over
  boys
• Miitsos and Browne (1998) argued that girls are
  more successful at coursework because they are
  more organised and conscientious
• This could come from early gender role
  socialisation, where girls are more likely to be
  encouraged to be neat and patient

4
Boys and achievement

• Previously we have looked at girls and
  achievement and focused on some possible reasons
  as to their improvement.
• The focus of this lesson will be on boys and
  achievement. We will look at some of the possible
  reasons for why certain boys are underachieving
  in education.
• There has recently been concern about certain
  boys who seem to be underachieving and falling
  behind. Is this a real problem or is it more of a
  media panic.
• When examining this issue it is important to
  recognise that it is not all boys that are
  underachieving.
• Boys are generally doing better than they have
  done in the past.
• When it comes to boys underachievement, class and
  ethnicity tend to play a big part ( working class
  , Afro-Caribbean boys tend to underachieve in
  particular).
• Look below, to find an article on boys
  achievement in education (archive section)
• www.guardian.co.uk

5
Reasons for boys underachievement

• Laddish subcultures
• Parental attitudes and primary socialisation
• Introduction of GCSEs.
• Behavioural problems
• Boys over-confidence
• Decline of traditional male jobs.

6
Reasons

• Laddish subculture
• Some boys may gain peer group status from having
  an anti-school subculture (when you mess about,
  dont think schools important etc). Willis and
  his study of the lads looked at a working class
  anti-school subculture. Mac an Ghaill (1994)
  identified 4 male subcultures including the
  macho lads.
• However, is this anything new, can this really be
  used as an explanation for recent
  underachievement, when it was happening in the
  1970s.
• Parental attitudes and primary socialisation
• There is an argument that parents spend less time
  with their sons reading. This then comes to be
  seen as a feminine activity. Harris et al (1993)
  researched the attitudes of working class girls
  and boys and found that boys tend to be less
  motivated and organised.
• They concluded these attitudes were down to the
  gender regimes they encountered in their homes.
  Girls were exposed to females who were organisers
  (housework, childcare etc) where as boys were
  exposed to males who were regarded as the macho
  male with no regard for authority.

7
Reasons continued

• Introduction of GCSEs
• It has been argued that girls benefit from the
  design of GCSEs, whereas it is a disadvantage to
  boys.
• It is argued boys dont cope so well with
  coursework (being organised and motivated) and
  that boys deal with abstract information better
  (GCSEs arent designed in this way).
• However, coursework is often only a small
  percentage of the overall grade, so its unlikely
  this is the only factor in boys underachievement.
• Behavioural problems
• Boys tend to have more behavioural issues, and
  are more likely to be disruptive in class and
  excluded.
• This could lead to teacher labelling and possibly
  the self-fulfilling prophecy.
• However, students can and do reject their labels.
  This also applies to a reasonably small
  percentage of boys.

8
Reasons continued

• Boys over confidence
• There is an argument that boys are over-confident
  in their abilities, which may mean they prepare
  less for exams. Feminist may argue that this
  comes from the wider attitude of a patriarchal
  society (male dominated). So boys dont put in
  the effort because there is an assume that as
  males they will be successful anyway.
• However, there is an argument that some boys have
  low self-esteem and do not believe that they will
  automatically do well just because their boys.
• Decline of traditional male jobs
• The decline of traditional mens jobs (manual
  work), has lead some boys to think that they
  dont have any prospects once they leave school,
  so give up trying to get any qualifications.
• Mac an Ghaill (1994) stated that there is a
  crisis of masculinity as traditional working
  class male roles are under threat as women become
  the main breadwinners.

9
Gender differences - Conclusion

• As we have seen over the last 2 lessons, there
  are significant differences between girls and
  boys achievement in school.
• Summary
• Both girls and boys have improved over the last
  few decades.
• Girls are currently outperforming boys, at most
  levels and in most subjects (even traditionally
  male subjects).
• However, it is important to remember that it is
  not just gender that plays a part in whether
  someone fails or succeeds in school. Social class
  and ethnicity are important as well (working
  class, Afro-Caribbean boys statistically are the
  students who underachieve the most).
• Sociologists are also concerned with some of the
  reasons why there continues to be a traditional
  pattern of boys subjects and girls subjects.
• Sociologists are interested in how schooling can
  reinforce gender identity. (This is what we will
  examine in the next lesson).