gender and differential achievement in education

- boys used to out perform girls in the uk - due to female education being seen as less important than male. been slift and boys are falling behind

- girsls get better results in primary school national curriculum tests

- girls get better results in nearly every subject at gcse

- girls are more likely to pass there a levels

- more women than men go to university in the uk

mitsos and browne - say teaching has become feminised. women are more likely to be classroom teachers especally in primary schools which gives girls a positive role models

textbooks and teaching resorces have changed and are less likely to steryotype girls into passive roles

the national curriculum forced girls to do traditionally male subjects. for example girls started to do science other local educatiuon authority and government initatives tr4ied to encoredge girls to do these subjects

swann and graddol - think that high female achievement is a result of the quality of interaction they have with their teachers. most of the time teachers spend with girls is used to help with their work but most teacher time spent with boys is focused on behavior management

jackson - says that schools label boys negatively. boys are associated with poor behavior, which gives the school a bad name, and with low achievement which lowers the schools leage table position. this nagative label becomes a self forfilling prophecy

archer- argues that the current underacheivement by boys in education masks the continuing problems that girls still face

she claims that high achieving asian and chinese girls get negatively labelled by teachers as robots who are incapable of independent thought

she also argues that black working class girls are nagatively labelled as loud and aggressive

she concludes that the ongoing acheivement of girls is fragile and problematic

some sociologists argues that girls are socialised into ways of behaving that are well suited to classroom enviroments- to be quieter, to listen to authroity figures and to read a lot

policies such as the equil pay act and sexd discrimination act have helped to create more equal opportunities in wider socierty. this has changed the values of society and attitudes in school

sue sharp - found that girls priorities have changed. they now want careers and qualifications. more women go out to work, so girls see positive role models in work. girls nowadays often want to be financialy independent

some sociologists argues that girls are socialised into ways of behaving that are well suited to classroom enviroments- to be quieter, to listen to authroity figures and to read a lot

policies such as the equil pay act and sexd discrimination act have helped to create more equal opportunities in wider socierty. this has changed the values of society and attitudes in school

the ewual pay act makes it illegal to play men and women different wages for the same wor. the sex discrimination act means employers can't discriminate on the basis of gender

sue sharp - found that girls priorities have changed. they now want careers and qualifications. more women go out to work, so girls see positive role models in work. girls nowadays often want to be financialy independent

the feminsit movement cause a change in female expectations and made more people aware of inequality. people are now more careful abount negative seryotyping, sex discrimination and partiachy

changes in the labor market have created opportunities for women. since the 1970s there has beeen a continual increase in the size of the service sector which is traditionally female dominated and a shrinking of hte primary sector which is traditionally male dominated.

changes in family structure have changed female aspirations. on average women now marry and have children later in life so they can persue a career first. theres also been a move towards more equal roles within households partically as a result of the feminist movement, so that women are more able a seek work outside of the home

boys may be having an identity crisis. the rise of female indepedence the decline of the breadwinner role for men and the rise in male unemployement might mean that boys don't see the point of education. this may lead to anti school subcultures

interpretivists say that teachers have lower expectations of boys. teacher expectations may lead to a self forfilling phropecy of poor behavior. negative labelling lay explain why they're more disruptive. boys are more likely to be excluded from school

the feminisation of teaching means that boys don't have as many role models in the classroom

reading can be seen as girly. boys who aviod books may not develop vital communicastion skills

negative labelling and putting students into different streams or sets can cause some puils to rebel against the schools values. they form subcultures. these can be either pro school or anti-school subcultures

in the 1970s willis looked at why working class kids get working class jobs he studied a group of boys later called willis lads. the lads rejected school and formed an anti-school subculture where education didn't matter, and where having a laugh was more important

mac an ghaill- says that sub-cultures are complicated. there are lots of different types. boys may join a macho lad subculture becuse of a crisis of masculinity. but boys could also join pro-school subcultures and be proud of academic achievement

fuller- studied a group a african caribbean girls in london who formed a subculture that worked hard to prove negative labbelling wrong

girls tend to choose essay based a levels like english and religous studies. boys tend to go for technical ones like maths and physics

subject choice may still be influenced by gender socialisation. the ideas of femininity and masculinity can create different expectations and steryptypes of what pupils should study

kelly- found that science is seen as a masculine subject. boys dominate the science classrooom

parental expectarions may encoredge students to follow what they see as the traditional normal choice for their gender. theres a pressure to  conform to a social norm

teachers may also have an effect on subject choice. most physics teachers are male for example meaning that there are more male than female role models within this subject