Internal factors - GENDER within girls

Question 1

Equal opportunities policies
-GIST and WISE

Answer 1

• Boaler claims it mwde education more meritocratic as it helped increase girls into STEM subjects because they felt valued
• provides more money financially
• feminists were worried that girls were self excluding themsslves from these jobs because it wasn’t what ‘girls did’
• encourages girls to go into places where its non traditional

Question 2

Positive role models in schools

Answer 2

• seeing working mums in teaching shows that it is normal
  
  • this gives more motivation
    to girls because they now
    know they have a freedom of
    choice
  • dont have to pick career
    over family vice versa
• surrounds girls in school on a daily basis

71% female primary school heads in 2012
61% female secondary school teachers

Question 3

GCSE and coursework ( mistos and brown )

Answer 3

• Feminists argue that girls are socialised into these attributes e.g being organised, being tidy, caring about presentation
• coursework rewards these attributes so when it was introduced the gap in achievement between boys and girls accelerated
  HOWEVER - now there is limited coursework for GCSEs and Alevels and boys close the gap

Question 4

Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

Answer 4

• weiner textbooks dont depict women in a stereotyped way - helped women because it putting them in a more positive light of what girls can do
• changed curriculum and made girls and boys study the same curriculum in 1988
  HOWEVER -it could be said that it is not actually changing and there are still more men being taught to children and fewer women even when the option is given

Question 5

Selection and league tables

Answer 5

• setting/streaming is based off SATS
• stated that girls do better in their SATs so it explains why more girls are put into top sets
• positive labels are also put onto girls due to their statistics mentioned
  -some schools let girls in more easily as their scores are better so it allows them to stay at the top of the league tables

Question 6

Evaluation - why these things may not improve ALL girls achievement

Answer 6

archer claims- w/c girls still care about symbolic capital
e.g boyfriends, being loud, hyper hetero sexual feminine identity - like constructing a desirable and glamorous feminine identity
e.g a girl spending £40 on appearance
- don’t think they will achieve in school ( fatalistic ideology) so put it into something else

Question 7

Mary fuller

Answer 7

• did a study of a school of girls in london
• showed ethnic minority girls do not always show the SFP