Topic 4 - Boys + achievement

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Boys + literacy

DCSF (2007) - gender gap mainly due to result of boys' poorer lit + lang skills - one reason b/c parents may spend less time reading to sons. Another - mohers do most of reading - becomes fem activity. 

Boys' leisure activies eg football, little to help develop lang + communication skills - girls - 'bedroom culture', talking.

Poor lit + lang skills likely to affect performance across subject. In response, gov intro'd range of policies to improve boys' skills.

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Globalisation + decline of traditional men's jobs

Decline in industries eg iron + steel, engineering etc since 1980s - partly due to globalisation of economy -> manufacturing industry relocating to developing countries eg China - cheap labour.

Traditionally, sectors of economy mainly employed men. Mitsos + Browne - decline in male employment opps -> 'identity crisis'. Boys believe little prospect of real job. Undermines motivation + self-esteem, give up trying to get qualifications.

Some truth, but decline largely been in manual w/c jobs that require few qualifications - seems unlikely disappearance of these jobs would impact boys' motivation to obtain qualifications.

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Feminisation of education

Sewell - boys fall behind as education 'feminised' - BBC (2006). Don't nurture 'masc' traits eg competitiveness + leadership. Celebrate methodical working + attentiveness in class - female traits.

S sees coursework as major cause of gender diffs in achievement. Argues some coursework should be replaced w/ final exams+ greater emphasis placed on outdoor adventure in curriculum. 'Challenged 1950 patriarchy and rightly said this is not a man's world. But we have thrown the boy out with the bath water".

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Shortage of male primary school teachers

Lack of male role models - cause of boys' underachievement. Eg large number of boys brought up in the 1.5 million female-headed lone-parent families in UK.

Only 14% primary school teachers are male. Yougov (2007) - 39% 8-11 y/o boys, no lessons w/ male teachers. Most boys surveyed said presence of male teacher made them behave better, 42% said would make them work harder.

Some argue this is b/c of culture of primary school become feminised as mainly staffed by female teachers, unable to control boys' behaviour. In this view, male teachers better able to impose strict discipline boys need to concentrate - if correct, suggest primary schools need more male teachers.

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Are more male teachers really needed?

Research suggests absence of male teachers may not be major factor in boys' underachievement. Francis (2006) - only 2/3 7-8 y/os believed gender of teachers matters.

Read (2008) - studied type of language teachers use to express criticism of work + behaviour - 2 types:

  • disciplinarian discourse - authority made explicit + visible, eg shouting
  • liberal discourse - authority implicit + invisible. Child-centered discourse involves 'pseudo-adultification' - speaks to pupil as if they were adult.
    Disciplinarian discourse - associated w/ masc, liberal w/ fem. But, in study of 51 primary school teachers (25 M, 26 F), most teachers used disciplinarian discourse. R draws 2 conclusions:
  • as most teachers use DD - disproves claim that culture of primary schoool become feminised
  • as female teachers just as likely as males to use DD - disproves claim only male teachers can provide stricter classroom culture where boys said to thrive.
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'Laddish' subcultures

Some argue this contributes to boys' underachievement. Epstein (1998) examined way masc constructed w/in school. Found w/c boys likely to be harassed, labelled as 'sissies' + subjected to homophobic verbal abuse if appear to be 'swots'. Supports Francis' (2001) finding - boys more concerned about being labelled than girls as more of threat to masc than it is to fem.

B/c in w/c culture, masc linked to being tough + manual work. Non-manual work (inc schoolwork) - effeminate, inferior -> w/c boys rejecting schoolwork. Epstein noted 'real boys don't work'. Epstein's findings parallel to Mac an Ghaill + Willis.

Francis - 'laddish culture - increasingly widespread. Argues b/c as girls move into traditional masc areas eg careers, boys respond by 'becoming increasingly laddish in effort to construct themselves as non-feminine'.

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Moral panic about boys

Critics of feminism - girls succeeded at expense of boys, who are the new disadv'd.

Feminists eg Ringrose (2013) - views above contributed to moral panic about 'failing boys' - reflects fear underachieving w/c boys will become dangerous, unemployable underclass threatens social stability. Argues moral panic caused major shift in ed policy - now preoccupied w/ raising boys' achievements -> 2 neg effects

  • by narrowing equal opps policy down to 'failing boys', ignores problem of disadv'd w/c + minority ethnic pupils.
  • by narrowing gender policy down to issue of achievement gaps, ignores other problems faced by girls in school. Eg sexual harassment + stereotyped subject choices.

Older (2006) - focus underachieving boys -> neglect in girls - partly b/c girls disengage from school quietly. Boys' disengagement takes form of public displays - 'laddish' masc - attention from teachers + policy makers. Gives eg of mentoring schemes - reduce school exclusions among black boys. Ignore problems of exclusions among girls - increasing more rapidly. Excluded girls less likely to get places in pupil referral units. Official exclusion rates ask wider hidden problem eg self-exclusion (girls).

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Gender, class + ethnicity

Performance of both sexes improved recently - still gender gap, but boys doing better than in past.

McVeigh (2001) - similarities in boys' + girls' achievement greater than diffs eg class gap at GCSE 3x larger than gender -> girls + boys of same social class similar results. Eg GCSE, gender gap w/in class rarely greater than 12%. Same gender, diff class, widely diff results eg girls highest social class 44% ahead of girls lowest social class. Extent gender influences achievement depends on class + ethnicity - Fuller - successful black girls, define fem in terms of ed achievement + independence. Sewell - black boys failing b/c define masc in opp to ed - effeminate.

Show need to take all 3 into acc to gain better understanding of diffs in achievement. Connolly (2006) - certain ambitions of gender, class + ethnicity - more effect than others. Eg being female raises performance more when 'added to' bein black Caribbean than when 'added to' being white.

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