Education-gender- why do boys underachieve

Question 1

Give two reasons why boys have poor literacy

Answer 1

-parents spend less time reading to their sons
-boys’ leisure pursuits e.g football do little to help develop their language and communication skills

Question 2

Why will boys’ poor literacy skills affect their achievement?

Answer 2

They are likely to have poor performance across a wide range of subjects

Question 3

How has the decline of traditional men’s jobs led to underachievement according to Mitsos and Browne?

Answer 3

-Loss of employment has led to an identity crisis for w/c men which means that they believe they have no chance of getting a proper job.
-This gives them low self esteem to get qualifications

Question 4

How has feminisation of education impacted boys’ achievement?

Answer 4

• Sewell claims school has become more feminized institutions that don’t nurture masculine traits(competitiveness/ leadership)
• Instead, they celebrate qualities such as methodical working (girl qualities)-> boys underachievement

Question 5

why does there need to be more male primary school teachers for boys’ to succeed?

Answer 5

-Most boys surveyed said the precise of a male teacher made them behave better and 42% said it made them work harder

Question 6

Evaluate boys needing more male primary teachers- Becky Francis

Answer 6

Becky Francis found that 2/3 of 7-8yr olds in her study the gender of teachers made no difference because as boys get older they develop more sexist ideas about their teachers

Question 7

What did Barbara read claim about our culture and male teachers?

Answer 7

Our culture is becoming feminised and that only male teachers can exert the firm discipline boys need

Question 8

Explain Barbara Read’s study and conclusions

Answer 8

-Studied 51 primary school teachers (25male and 26 female
-Concluded that most teachers favoured “masculine” disciplinarian discourse (e.g teacher’s authority made visible through tone of voice) even female teachers used it

Question 9

How have laddish subcultures contributed to boys’ underachievement?

Answer 9

Epstein found that w/c boys were labelled and subject to a greater deal of abuse->e.g homophobic comments
-Laddish culture-> boys reject schoolwork as they don’t want to be seen as inferior or effeminate

Question 10

Evaluations of boys’ underachievement- Tracy McVeigh

Answer 10

-She notes that similarities in girls’ and boys’ achievement are far greater that the differences between ethnic and class differences.
-e.g the class gap in achievement is 3X greater than the gender gap