Sociology - Gender Inequality

Swann and Graddol (1994)

•  teachers tend to see boys as unruly and disruptive
•  more likely to spend time being told off and helped with schoolwork
• teachers have lower expectations of boys and so are less inclined to push them hard and achieve high standards
• disruptive behaviour = more likely to to be excluded 
• Four out of five permanent exclusions are boys 
• Ladette culture - might change this ^^^

• John Abraham (1986) - asked teachers to describe a typical boy and typical girl
• Typical boy - not particularly bright, likes a laugh and always attention-seeking - often messing around
• Typical girl - Bright - well-behaved and hard-working, being quiet and timid.
• As a result - boys were being told off much more easily than boys

Working-class boys especially tend to form anti-school subcultures - Paul Willis (1977) - found this research with the lads.

Tony Sewell (1977) - argues there is a black - anti-school masculinity

Diane Reay (2003) - found that boys felt they had little control over their educational learning and so seek power through other negative strategies.

Unlike the anti-school subculture discovered by Paul Willis, some researchers such as Abrahams (1988) and Mizra (1992) have found evidence of pro-school female subcultures who actively encourage each other to study