Gender and educational achievement

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  • Created by: Emily~99
  • Created on: 23-05-17 20:11
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  • Gender and educational achievement
    • Facts
      • Girls do better at every stage of National Curriculum Tests in English and science
      • A higher proportion of females stay for 6th form and post-18 higher education
      • More women apply and get accepted for full-time university courses (in 2014, they made up  57% of applicants)
    • Problems remaining for girls
      • Social class has a bigger influence than gender on educational achievement: Perry & Francis - Middle-class boys outperform working-class girls
      • Girls typically study arts, as opposed to science and technology, which impact their future career choices
      • Girls achieve fewer high-grade A levels than boys with the same GCSE results
      • Women are less likely than men with similar qualifications to achieve similar levels of success in paid employment
    • Why do females do better than males? - Feminism
      • It's improved the rights and raised the expectations and self-esteem of women
      • It's challenged the stereotype of 'housewife' and 'mother'
      • It's made people more aware of sexism
    • Why do females do better than males? - Equal opportunities
      • The work of sociologists (especially feminist ones) highlighted past educational underperformance of girls and caused a greater emphasis on equal opportunities
      • Policies include monitoring teaching and learning materials for gender bias and campaigns such as WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering)
      • Teachers are much more sensitive about avoiding gender stereotyping in the classroom than they used to be
    • Why do females do better than males? - Growing ambition, more positive role models and more employment opportunities
      • Service sector of the economy - Concerned with things like the production of services instead of actual products, administration, information, etc.
      • In recent years, there's been a decline in traditionally 'male' jobs (e.g. semi- and un-skilled manual work), BUT, an increase in employment opportunities for women in the service sector
      • Girls are growing up with mothers working in paid employment, providing a positive role model and making them more ambitious
      • Sharpe - In 1976, girls' priorities were 'love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs, careers' (more or less in that order). By 1994, they were 'job, career and being able to support themselves'
      • McRobbie (2008) - Changes in the job market mean that young women expect to gain a degree as a requirement for an interesting/rewarding career (replaced the aspirations of marriage and motherhood)
    • Why do females do better than males? - Girls work harder, are better motivated and have more peer-group support
      • Research has shown that a 14-year-old girl can concentrate for 3-4x as long as a 14-year-old boy
      • Girls are more likely to bring the right equipment and hand work in on time
      • Francis - The development of the feminine identity in school settings involves a cooperative attitude towards teachers, other pupils and authority in general. This is linked to a supportive attitude to schoolwork, which is enhanced by their pro-school peer group
    • Why do boys underachieve? - Lower expectations
      • There's evidence that staff are less strict with male pupils; they're more likely to extend deadlines, be tolerant to disruptive behaviour, accept poor presented work, etc.
      • These low expectations create a self-fulfilling propechy
    • Why do boys underachieve? - Boys are more disruptive
      • The male peer group typically devalues schoolwork, so boys may aim to gain peer-group status through aggressive and disruptive classroom behaviour. They then lose learning time by being sent home
      • Boys are >3x more likely to be excluded (temporarily or permanently) and the most common reason for this is persistent disruptive behaviour
    • Why do boys underachieve? - Masculinity and the anti-learning subculture
      • Forde et al. (2006) - Peer-group pressure encourages boys to maintain a dominant masculine identity, which is partly developed through resistance to school as they see academic work as 'feminine'
      • This is more predominant with working-class males, who want to gain 'street cred': Epstein et al. (1998) - Working-class boys risk harassment, bullying and being labelled as 'gay' if they appeared to work hard at school
      • Shown in Wills' study
      • Teaching is often a female profession, meaning there is a lack of positive role models for boys (especially in primary schools)
    • Why do boys underachieve? - Declining traditional male employment opportunities and the male identity crisis
      • Man an Ghaill (1994) - The decline in traditional male working-class jobs may cause boys to lack motivation, think their prospects are limited and have low self-esteem
      • The collapse of the traditional male 'breadwinner' role has caused a crisis of masculinity; males feel insecure about their role
      • They attempt to develop a positive self-image through 'laddish' behaviour, aggressive macho bravado and anti-school activity
    • Why do males and females tend to study different subjects? - Gender socialisation
      • It's rooted in both primary and secondary sociialisation
      • From an early age, girls and boys are encouraged to play with different toys and typically see their parents pay different roles in the house
      • Lobban (1974) - There is gender stereotyping in children's books, with women more clearly linked to domestic roles
      • This may encourage boys to develop an interest in technical/ scientific subjects and discourage girls from taking them
      • Socialisation factor may be reinforced by peer pressure and the gendered perception of subject/career choices
    • Why do males and females tend to study different subjects? - Subject counselling
      • Teachers and career advisers may be reflecting their own socialisation and expectations
      • This is often wider in vocational subjects
    • Why do males and females tend to study different subjects? - Subject images, gender identity and peer pressure
      • Colley (1998) - Gender perceptions of different subjects are an important influence on subject choice; arts and humanities are seen as feminine and science and technology are seen as masculine
      • Skelton et al. (2007) - Male and females tend to be drawn to different subjects based on their own ideas of what is appropriate for their gender identity
      • Kelly (1987) - Boys tend to dominate science classrooms (e.g. grabbing apparatus first, answering questions aimed at girls, ridiculing girl's questions, etc.), which undermined the confidence of girls
      • Gender stereotyping still occurs in science, with females missing from textbooks
    • Schooling and gender identity
      • Francis (2005) - Schooling creates and reinforces gender identities through elements such as...
        • Gendered verbal behaviour - Boys dominate talk in mixed-sex classrooms and interrupt girls, meaningthey gain a greater proportion of the teacher's time/attention
        • Gendered pursuits - Girl's classroom talk and activity is generally about appearance, the construction of femininity (e.g. hair/make-up) and making themselves 'look nice' for boys. Boys mirror this, boasting about their alleged sexual conquests and how far girls would let them go (double standards: seeing girls as 'sluts' and themselves as 'studs')
        • The role of teachers - They often expect different things from male and female pupils; girls are expected to be more quiet, obedient and conformist than boys. Girls who don't do so are penalised more heavily than boys, as their bad behaviour is dismissed with phrases like 'boys will be boys'

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