4.7 Theorists Flashcards
Gender and Educational Attainment
Edwards and David
Female Primary Socialisation
Girls gain an advantage in education as they are spoken to more by their parents (improving language skills) and are taught to conform to formal behaviours.
Thus, by 7, they are more likely to pay attention and be self-disciplined. And, by secondary, they have a compliant motivational style.
Burns and Bracey showed that early socialisation was reflected in attitudes and behaviours through school; Girls, at secondary, are more motivated than boys and work harder.
Edwards and David claims male socialisation is differenty; at home, boys are allowed to be noisier and more attention-seeking than girls.
Thus, boys were more likely to break the rules at school and were less bothered about getting in trouble.
They observed that by the time boys started secondary school they had difficulties sitting still and concentrating. They could really only handle short term tasks and were less prepared than girls to just get on with work.
Hannan
Peer group (secondary socialisation)
Girls and boys spend leisure time differently.
Boys relate to their peers by doing, whereas girls talk. Thus girls have an advantage as they have increased comprehension and writing skills.
Crespi
argues that there is now a range of gender identities available to teenage girls, whereas previously these roles had been largely restricted to part time or domestic work
Michelle Cohen
She said that, at the earlier stages of education, girls have always outperformed boys; dating back to when mass ed was introduced in UK.
Despite this, girls did not have the same opps in higher education as boys.
Skelton and Francis
Note how explanations for female achievement are frequently discussed in terms of male underachievement focused around 3 main ideas:
1. Natural differences, such as differences in brain functions between boys and girls, explain differences in achievement
2. The feminisation of schooling gives girls distinct advantages over boys. Ideas here range from the lack of male role models to ‘female friendly’ teaching practices, curricula and assesment criteria that reflects a form of positive discrimination which favors girls.
3. Gender constructions and interpretations produce different behaviours that impact on achievement. This includes both teacher expecttions and interpretations– girls are increasingly seen as likely to achieve more than boys.
Francis and Skelton
female identity
Chosen careers reflect their sense of identity.
They can gain future fulfilment from these, rather than it being a stopgap before marriage.
Wilkinson and Sharpe
Feminist ideas were filtering down through education, media, and ultimately into families.
These ideas led to an increased emphasis on equal opportunities within schools.
Jones and Myhill
argue that educational underachievement is defined by teachers in ways that are increasingly likely to identify boys- particularly white and black wc boys- as potential uderachievers.
Warrington and Younger
found little difference between the percentage of boys and girls who leave school with no qualifications, but there are clear class and ethnic differences.
Gillborn and Mirza
also argue that gender differences in achievement are small compared to class differences in achievement. Underachievement by wc and minority ethnic girls is frequently ignored by feminist and non feminists alike
Haralambos and Holborn
They conclude that the difference in attainment is overestimated because, boys have been gaining ground on girls - the gap is narrowing.
Their results have been steadily improving at GCSE and A-Level (could this be due to a move away from traditional manual work to a service economy?)
Mcdonald etal
The pronounced gender gap only exists in the wc class and state schools. This gap in attainment is negligible in the mcs.
Jones and Myhill
argue that male identities that emphasise physical strength, sexual virility, and aggressiveness are unhelpful in terms of educational achievement. such masculinities create problems for teachers and play down the value of educational qualifications. Changes in both female identities and the workplace mean that some wc boys consider education to be irrelevant to their future.
Myhill
believed that, despite doing better academically, girls are not actually receiving the best education. Their success is down to compliance and passivity.
Boys actually get a better education as they interact more with teachers.
This compliance may hinder girls in the workplace as few people get to the top jobs by being passive.
Frosh etal
They based their identities under macho values. Frosh found that boys put very little value in school work. They saw it is feminine and unmanly.
They did not value schoolwork seeing it as silly and weak.
Instead, they spent more time engaging in hyper-masculine behaviour, such as bullying the academic boys (homophobic abuse) or being disruptive in class.
