Policies relating to social class + deprivation Flashcards

Question

Basil Bernstein (1977) Elaborated vs Restricted Speech Codes Criticism about Generalisations.

Answer 1

There are wide differences in usage of language within the m/c and the w/c, so it is difficult to generalise to all m/c or w/c families

Answer 2

Labov (1973): the language used by w/c children is simply different, not inferior, and is equally capable of dealing with abstract and complex ideas

Answer 3

Troyna & Williams (1986): The problem is not language but the school’s attitude towards it. Teachers have a speech hierarchy, and value w/c lower than m/c speech.

Answer 4

• It has been influential in shaping government policy, particularly through compensatory education. • These policies aim to help support parents and students to help offset and reduce the influence of cultural deprivation. E.g. in the UK: • Sure Start Centres (2000) • Education Action Zones: Resources for deprived areas to tackle cultural deprivation. • Aim Higher: Raising aspirations of groups under-represented in higher education by visiting schools and encouraging applications. • Education Maintenance Allowance: Encouraging low-income students to stay in education after 16. • Literacy

Answer 5

• These can be criticised for reflecting the ‘myth’ of cultural deprivation rather than the reality of cultural difference. Many Marxist sociologists argue that w/c students should be seen as culturally different, not culturally deprived. • The policies can be seen as the state attempting to impose m/c values on the w/c. • Many of these policies have been cancelled or reduced by the Coalition or Conservative government since 2010 such as EMA, so their effect is now limited.

Answer 6

• Cultural deprivation is a myth: a victim-blaming explanation. • W/c children are culturally different, not culturally deprived. • W/c children are at a disadvantage by an education system dominated by m/c values.

Answer 7

• The problem is not language but the school’s attitude towards it. • Teachers have a speech hierarchy, and value w/c and black speech lower than m/c speech.

Answer 8

Marxism: Cultural deprivation theorists blame educational failure on the inadequacy of w/c subculture. Marxists argue that this is a victim-blaming explanation; by doing so, it lets social inequality and the education system off the hook. Society as a whole is to blame, not the w/c. It is a smoke-screen that covers the true cause: material deprivation.

Answer 9

Knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities passed on from m/c parents to their children, and giving them an advantage

Answer 10

Other Forms of Capital (these are often interrelated with cultural capital) • Social Capital: Networks of influence and support (knowing the right people) • Symbolic Capital: Possession of status • Educational Capital: Qualifications

Answer 11

Both It is pointless to argue whether it is cultural or material factors that contribute most to educational underachievement: They are not separate but interrelated.

Answer 12

• The more material deprivation a family suffers from, the more likely they are to be culturally deprived. • And the more economic capital a family has, the more likely it is to have cultural capital. • E.g. wealthy parents can convert economic capital into educational capital by sending children to private schools and paying for extra tuition. • M/c parents are more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school that is highly placed in the exam league tables: ‘selection by mortgage’, driving up mortgages and excluding w/c families.

Answer 13

Social groups with control over economic capital ensure their children also pick up cultural capital (through socialisation).

Answer 14

Cultural capital is essential for educational capital.

Answer 15

• Upper class (u/c) and m/c children are more successful at school because they are familiar with school requirements. • W/c children underachieve because they do not have the same access to cultural capital.

Answer 16

• Schooling appears to be neutral and fair, because it measures all pupils against the same cultural knowledge. • In fact, w/c children remain in the w/c because they are handicapped in the acquisition of cultural capital – this reproduces class inequality. • They are victims of symbolic violence. • The middle class have a particular habitus, which is a certain culture that makes them more likely to do well in education.

Answer 17

A habitus is someone’s tastes, culture, values and norms. E.g. middle class children’s habitus is more likely to involve watching documentaries, playing an instrument, playing sport etc. These activities are all valued by teachers and are more likely to stimulate intellectual and cultural development than the w/c habitus. NB – Bourdieu was a Marxist

Answer 18

Diane Reay (1988) Stephen Ball (2003) - The Middle Class & Social Advantage

Answer 19

1. Diane Reay (1988) argues that it’s middle class mothers that matter. Her research was based on the mothers of 33 children at two London primary schools. 2. All the mothers are actively involved in their children’s education, the mothers of working class children worked just as hard as the middle class mothers. But the cultural capital of the middle class mothers gave their children an advantage. 3. Middle class mothers had more educational capital and more information about how the education system operated. They used this capital to good effect – helping with homework, improving confidence and sorting out any issues with teachers. 4. Where the middle class mothers had confidence and self-assurance to make demands on teachers, the working class mothers talked in terms of ‘plucking up the courage’ and ‘making myself go and see the teacher’. Thus they felt less able to support their child’s learning.

Answer 20

M/c parents = Skilled choosers W/c parents = Disconnected choosers A School/parent alliance exists between middle class schools and parents. Middle class parents want to send their children to schools with predominantly middle class students, and schools assume this will result in better exam results. Remember schools are under pressure to achieve the best results possible due to marketisation.

Answer 21

• Recognises that w/c children are culturally different rather than deficient. • Appreciates that education system is not responsive to a range of cultural backgrounds – it is too middle class. • Marxists support this theory/explanation as it is evidence that the middle class are better off in education due to cultural as well as material factors. It is evidence of the middle class transmitting a dominant ideology.

Answer 22

• Lacks large amount of empirical support. It is difficult to actually operationalise (measure) the concept of cultural capital. How can we really tell how much influence playing a musical instrument or speaking in the elaborated speech code can have on GCSE results? • Deterministic – some w/c students do break away from their culture and have a high level of cultural capital.

Answer 23

1. It is pointless to argue whether cultural or material factors that contribute most to educational underachievement: 2. They are not separate but interrelated. 3. The more material deprivation a family suffers from, the more likely they are to be culturally deprived. 4. And the more economic capital a family has, the more likely it is to have cultural capital.

Answer 24

1. There is evidence that external factors are important in class and achievement: a gap exists before students even start school. 2. However, focusing on external factors lets the education system off the hook. 3. Interactionists argue that internal factors are more important, and point towards the increasing gap in achievement as children progress through the education system. 4. In fact, it is most likely that the two work together: external factors place w/c children at a considerable disadvantage, which is then compounded by processes within schools.

Answer 25

However, ethnicity and gender also influence outcomes within each social class. Thus, external theories of class alone cannot explain all aspects of differential educational achievement. See the Ethnicity (Ed 4) & Gender (Ed 5) topics sections for more detail.

Answer 26

However, ethnicity and gender also influence outcomes within each social class. Thus, external theories of class alone cannot explain all aspects of differential educational achievement. See the Ethnicity (Ed 4) & Gender (Ed 5) topics sections for more detail.

Answer 27

1. White and Asian pupils do better than black pupils. 1. Chinese and Indian students are the highest achieving groups, achieving significantly better results than other Asian groups such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi. 2. Girls do better than boys in every ethnic group. 3. M/c children do better than w/c children in every ethnic group. 4. Many white w/c pupils perform at a lower level than other ethnic groups. 5. White working class boys are now the worst-performing group in the country.

Answer 28

1. Material Deprivation 2. Cultural Deprivation 3. Cultural Capital 4. Racism in Wider Society

Answer 29

Ethnic minorities are more likely to face material deprivation than white groups.

Answer 30

Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and Africans

Answer 31

• Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are over 3x more likely than whites to be in the poorest fifth of the population. • Unemployment is 3x higher for African and Bangladeshi/Pakistani than for whites. • 15% of ethnic minority households live in overcrowded conditions, compared with 2% white. • Achievement in education mirrors eligibility for free school meals, a common measurement of poverty and deprivation. • This suggests that material deprivation at least partly explains the underachievement of ethnic groups.

Answer 32

This suggests that material deprivation at least partly explains the underachievement of ethnic groups.

Answer 33

Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter of white children.

Answer 34

• Ethnic minority households are almost twice as likely to be unemployed compared with whites. • Ethnic minority households are around three times as likely to be homeless. • Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wages.

Answer 35

• Almost half of Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers earned under £7 per hour compared with only a quarter of white British workers. • They are more likely to be involved in shift work and Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are more likely to be engaged in low-paid homeworking (often linked to the Muslim tradition of purdah which prevents women working outside the home). • Many live in economically depressed areas with high unemployment and low wages.

Answer 36

• Asylum seekers may not be allowed to seek work. • A lack of language skills and foreign qualifications can impact on employment opportunities for recent migrants. • Racial discrimination in the housing market and labour market.

Answer 37

• Indian and Bangladeshi ethnic groups still do better, regardless of income. This shows cultural factors must play a part. • Postmodernists argue that class and ethnicity does not have an impact on identity, so it doesn’t shape a pupils’ experiences of education.

Answer 38

1. Lack of Linguistic Skills 2. Poor Primary Socialisation 3. Poor Family Structure 4. Poor Attitudes & Values

Answer 39

• DfES report (2006) - Pupils for whom English is an additional language had lower attainment than those whose first language was English. • Those with English as a second language may find it hard to understand and be understood by their teachers and may have difficulties with textbooks and exam papers.

Answer 40

Gillborn and Mirza (2000) - Indian pupils achieve some of the highest rates of qualifications despite some students having English as an additional language.

Answer 41

Similar to arguments about the w/c and cultural deprivation:

Answer 42

Some ethnic groups receive inadequate primary socialisation

Answer 43

Black children do not learn the cultural values that equip them for success in education. e.g. instead of deferred gratification, future-time orientation they learn fatalism, instant gratification (Sugarman, 1970)

Answer 44

Scruton (1986) (New Right) - The low achievement of some ethnic minorities results from a failure to embrace mainstream British culture. e.g. they place a lower value on educational success and encourage their children less than other ethnic groups.

Answer 45

However, it is too deterministic and simplistic to suggest that the aspirations of black students and white students are different. Class has to be considered. Black people are more likely to live in poverty, so perhaps this inhibits their ability to be socialised as effectively as they could be if they were wealthier.

Answer 46

Inadequate socialisation is seen as the result of dysfunctional family structures by the New Right.

Answer 47

48% of black Caribbean families are single-parent, compared with 22% white and 11% Asian.

Answer 48

Moynihan (1965) - The level of lone mother families mean the families struggle economically and the boys lack male role models. This creates a cycle of underachievement.

Answer 49

Murray (1984) (New Right) - Absence of a male role model means boys do not have an adequate model of male achievement. This leads to poor socialisation, low attainment, unemployment, criminality and the rise of the underclass.

Answer 50

• He argues that it is not the lack of male role models that leads to black boys underachieving but the lack of father nurturing or ‘tough love’ (firm, fair, respectful and non-abusive). • This results in black boys finding it hard to overcome the emotional and behavioural difficulties of adolescence. • The absence of fatherly love and discipline is filled by other fatherless boys in street gangs who offer ‘perverse loyalty and love’. • These present boys with a media inspired role model of anti-school black masculinity whose ideal Chris Arnot (2004) describes as ‘the ultra-tough ghetto superstar, an image constantly reinforced through rap lyrics and MTV videos’.

Answer 51

• Sewell argues that “the biggest barrier facing black boys is actually black peer pressure. We need to talk about how black students discourage their peers”. • Black peer pressure sees speaking in standard English and doing well at school as ‘selling out’ to the white establishment. • He argues that Asian children are working hard on education, whilst black children are being nurtured by MTV. • Black children, particularly the boys, need to have greater expectations placed on them to raise their aspirations. • Sewell links cultural deprivation with internal school factors such as peer groups and counter-school subcultures.

Answer 52

• Children of high-income single-parent families do very well in education, suggesting that poverty is more relevant than family structure. • African-Caribbean girls do better than boys suggesting that girls are not culturally deprived but have strong role models to look up to and emulate. This argument seems to affect boys rather than girls, suggesting gender may be the bigger factor here, rather than ethnicity is isolation.

Answer 53

• Lupton (2004) - Compared four working-class schools and found that lack of parental support and negative attitude toward education is seen as a key factor in the educational failure and low aspirations of white w/c children. • The same study compared white parental attitudes to the ethnic minority students studied who were often more likely to be recipients of free school meals (material deprivation) but whose parents were positive towards education and saw it as a way up in society.

Answer 54

• McCulloch (2014) - Found in a survey of 16,000 pupils that ethnic minority pupils are more likely to aspire to go to university than white British pupils.

Answer 55

• Keddie sees cultural deprivation theory as a victim-blaming explanation. • Ethnic minority children are culturally different not culturally deprived. • Other sociologists argue that some ethnic minorities underachieve because the curriculum is ethnocentric and favours white culture.

Answer 56

Cultural capital theory explains why Indian and Chinese pupils in particular achieve higher than average results in education. This mainly refers to the strong family structures that exist in many Asian communities and the values that such students are socialised into from a young age that encourage educational success.

Answer 57

Lupton (2004) argues that the culture of respect towards parents/elders prepares children for a culture of respect towards teachers in schools. Parents were also found to be more supportive or school disciplinary policies.

Answer 58

Stephen Strand (2007) carried out analysis on a longitudinal study of young people, which was based on interviews with 15000 children and parents. The data suggested that Indian parents tended to have greater control over their children and so they were better behaved. Indian students were the ethnic group that were most likely to complete homework 5 evenings a week, the group where parents are most likely to say they always know where their child is when they are out, the group least likely to be truant, and the group least likely to have been excluded from school.

Answer 59

Basit (2013) Studied Pakistani and Indian families in the West Midlands (both Muslim and Hindu)

Answer 60

Studied Pakistani and Indian families in the West Midlands (both Muslim and Hindu) and found that all the participants (children and adults) placed a high value on education and saw free education as a ‘blessing’ because it offered more opportunities than were available in their countries of origin.

Answer 61

• They therefore put considerable effort and resources into helping their children. • Even poor parents had managed to make space for the students to study. • Parents expected their children to work hard, and worked with them. • Education was seen as a form of capital to enable their children to reach their aspirations and to be socially mobile.

Answer 62

Some feminists highlight the high levels of patriarchy in some Asian families and the limits or conflicts this places on girl’s involvement in out of school activities and education aspirations. Bagguley and Hussain (2008)’s study suggests that many young Asian Muslim women face a conflict of parental expectations to marry and may have to cater their education around such cultural expectations.

Answer 63

• Wood et al (2010) sent three closely matched applications to each of almost 1000 job vacancies. These were fictitious and featured names associated with different ethnic groups. One application appeared to come from a white candidate, two from members of ethnic minority groups. • They found that only one in 16 applications from ‘ethnic minority’ candidates were offered an interview compared to one in nine ‘white’ applications.

Answer 64

Moon (1993) conducted a study to compare discriminatory practices in employment. They sent out identical letters of enquiry to the top 100 companies in the UK and entitled half with the surname ‘Evans’ and the other half with ‘Patel’. They both had the same level of qualifications and the same amount of experience. The result of the study concluded that companies were more encouraging to the ‘white’ candidate.

Answer 65

1. low self-esteem among black pupils 2. hostility to schooling 3. the low-paid unskilled work it prepares them for.

Answer 66

• They have exposed the weaknesses of outdated genetic-based explanations. This is because they highlight the need to look at social rather than biological causes of ethnic differences in educational attainment. • They have brought about social policy initiatives to improve the educational experiences of ethnic minority children… For example, provisions for teaching English as a second language, and compensatory education.

Answer 67

• External factors cannot fully explain the different achievement of ethnic minorities. This is because the inequalities for African-Caribbean pupils become progressively greater as they progress through school. This suggests that the education system (i.e. internal factors) actively disadvantages black children. • As such, it is clear that internal factors also play an important role in shaping educational achievement.

Answer 68

• Girls do better than boys on baseline assessments when they start school. • Girls do better than boys at Key Stages 1-3 (Years 1-9). In English, the gender gap widens with age. • Girls outperform boys at GCSE by a factor of around 9%. • Girls overtook boys in achieving higher grades at A level. They are more likely to pass, and more likely to achieve higher grades, even in so-called ‘boys’ subjects. The gap is smaller than at GCSE (6%), but girls are more likely than boys to take A Levels in the first place. • The same pattern is seen in vocational education. • Girls are more likely to attend university than boys (36% more likely!) • Wilkinson argues that there has been a ‘genderquake’ in society which has changed women’s attitude to education and careers in a profound way.

Answer 69

• There is recent evidence that the gap is closing. • In 2019, boys achieved more A* and A grades at A Level than girls (just!), with 26.4% of boys getting top grades, compared with 26% of girls. • In 2018, with the new GCSE numbering grade system, the gap narrowed between girls and boys. • This may be because of policies introduced to level achievement – compensatory education.

Answer 70

1. Impact of Feminism 2. Changes in Family Structure 3. Changes in Women’s Employment 4. Girls’ Changing Ambitions 5. Girls Mature Faster 6. Gender Socialisation

Answer 71

• Feminism movements in the 1960s and 1970s improved women’s rights. • Challenged traditional stereotype of women’s roles as housewives and mothers (in the expressive role). • McRobbie (1994) highlighted changes in the content of women’s magazines towards assertive, independent women.

Answer 72

• ambitious for education and careers. • Feminists believe that girls’ changing ambitions have been brought about by their attempts to highlight gender inequalities in society and their efforts to encourage the government, schools and teachers to actually combat patriarchy and provide genuine equality of opportunity which has led to raising the expectations and self-esteem of girls.

Answer 73

• The divorce rate has increased to 42% in the UK.

Answer 74

• There has been a large increase in cohabitation (only 50% of cohabiting couples get married).

Answer 75

• There has been a sharp increase in the number of single parent families, and in 90% of cases these are headed by the mother.

Answer 76

• Families are also getting smaller, meaning more time and attention can be given to one or two children. •  This means that more women are taking on the breadwinner role, which creates positive role models of financial independence. •  Girls no longer believe that they can rely on a male breadwinner, so they have greater incentive to gain good qualifications.

Answer 77

• 1970 Equal Pay Act – the pay gap has fallen from 30% in 1975 to 11% in 2019, according to the Financial Times. • 1975 Sex Discrimination Act – made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex or gender.

Answer 78

• The proportion of women in employment is nearly at 70%.

Answer 79

• There is a growing service sector where women are increasingly likely to be employed over men and employers increasingly seek women for higher managerial roles because they generally have better communication skills than men. This means women now have greater opportunity than men in the world of work which makes education much more relevant to them than in the 1970s when they had fewer opportunities. • As a result, girls now see a future in paid work and have a greater incentive to gain good qualifications.

Answer 80

The gender pay gap does still exist! In theory, this could demotivate some girls who may just accept society as still sexist. However, this is unlikely in today’s society.

Answer 81

Sue Sharpe (1994) carried out a study twice, once in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. She interviewed young girls about their ambitions in both decades

Answer 82

In the 1970s their priorities were to get married and have a family, but by the 1990s their priorities were to achieve a career and have a family later on in life.

Answer 83

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2001) link this to the rise of individualism and believe that independence is now valued strongly by women. Postmodernity has influenced girls’ ambitions so that they no longer feel restricted by their gender.

Answer 84

Claims: • At 16, girls are estimated to be more mature than boys by up to two years. • As a result, girls are more likely to view exams in a responsible way and recognise the seriousness and importance of academic and career choices that lie ahead of them. Criticism • This point lacks a lot of empirical evidence and is based on estimations. Academic and emotional maturity is difficult to measure objectively.

Answer 85

• Fiona Norman (1988) found that most parents think the appropriate socialisation for a girl is to handle her very gently, and to encourage her in a relatively passive, quiet way. • Parents are also much more likely to read with girls, than boys.

Answer 86

Gender stereotypes held by parents also mean that ‘typical boys’ need more time to run around and play and ‘let off steam’, and parents are more likely to be dismissive if their boys are in trouble at school.

Answer 87

Girls are more likely to succeed in education in terms of behaviour and language skills.

Answer 88

1. Globalisation & Employment Patterns 2. Leisure Patterns 3. Gender Socialisation – Boys & Reading

Answer 89

There has been a decline in traditionally ‘male’ jobs for the working class. This has created a crisis of masculinity because manufacturing jobs in the UK have been eradicated by globalisation

Answer 90

• Mac an Ghaill (1994) argues that working class boys therefore experience a crisis of masculinity. • Mitsos & Browne also agree that young boys may be experiencing an identity crisis because they believe they have little prospect of getting a proper job. • This can result in boys lacking motivation and ambition because they feel they have limited prospects. • This impacts working class boys rather than middle class boys as it is their jobs that are affected by the trend of globalisation.

Answer 91

• Boys relate to their peers by doing: playing sports or computer games. • Girls relate to their peers by talking: bedroom culture. • This means boys fail to develop the linguistic and reasoning skills required for success at school and many non-manual service sector jobs that Postmodern society is characterised by.

Answer 92

• Reading has been ‘feminised’ in our culture. • So boys see reading as a feminine activity – boring and not real work. • Research has shown that boys stop being interested in reading at around the age of 8.

Answer 93

• Reading is crucial for success at school due to the cultural capital it brings. • Lack of reading can also result in boys speaking in the restricted speech code, which inhibits their ability to achieve as well as girls might.

Answer 94

Some working-class girls still retain more traditional ambitions of marriage / children and expect to go into low-paid work. Diana Reay (1998) argues this reflects the limited job opportunities they perceive to be available to them and the status of a traditional gender identity (as part of a couple) is seen as attainable.

Answer 95

Biggart (2002) found working-class girls were more likely to face a precarious labour market position and see motherhood as the only viable option for their futures.

Answer 96

The external factor of a decline in industrialisation which leads to a crisis of masculinity links class, gender and ethnicity together as it is white working class males that primarily experience this.

Answer 97

• They are an improvement on earlier, genetic-based explanations that girls are simply ‘cleverer’ as they recognise the importance of social processes. • As a set of explanations, they attempt to link the different parts of society together and show the interdependence of different parts of society – the family with politics, work etc. • They stress cultural factors as well as social ones; for example, the importance of the media in influencing views on gender.

Answer 98

• They tend to oversimplify the effects of cultural and social forces in society. They neglect the effects of inside school processes and therefore act as a smokescreen for the failure of the education system. • The decline of manufacturing and crisis of masculinity only affects working class boys, possibly explaining their achievement relative to girls, but middle class girls outperform middle class boys too, who are less likely to associate masculinity with factory work. • The socialisation of girls does not explain why they started to overtake boys in the late 1980s – if anything gender role socialisation has become more neutral in recent years.

Answer 99

• It is difficult to measure the impact of feminism – changes in the job market that lead to improved opportunities for women may be due to other technological and cultural changes. • Radical Feminists particularly emphasise the importance of institutional sexism within schools.

Answer 100

• Interactionists would argue that in-school processes such as teacher labelling, bullying and the formation of male anti-school subcultures have a bigger impact that structural factors in wider society and in the home.

Answer 101

1. Teacher Labelling 2. Subcultures 3. Feminisation of Education 4. The National Curriculum & Coursework 5. Boys’ Overconfidence

Answer 102

• Swann and Graddol (1994) found that teachers tend to see boys as unruly and disruptive and are more likely to spend time telling them off than helping them with schoolwork. • Teachers have lower expectations of boys and are so are less inclined to push them to achieve high standards. • Because of their disruptive behavior they are more likely to be excluded – 4 in 5 permanent exclusions are boys.

Answer 103

• Abraham (1986) asked teachers to describe a typical boy and a typical girl, the typical boy was described as ‘not particularly bright, likes a laugh and always attention seeking, often by messing around’. The typical girl was ‘bright, well-behaved and hard-working, being quiet and timid’. As a result, boys were told off more quickly than girls. • Boys got more attention but teachers deal with them more harshly and expect less from them. • Research suggests that male teachers are likely to be stricter (disciplinarian teaching style), especially towards girls when they act outside of the stereotypical gender domain. • Teachers are more likely to extend deadlines for boys, have lower expectations, are more tolerant of unruly behaviour and accept poorly presented work. This contributes to a lack of structure and achievement for boys.

Answer 104

Working class boys especially tend to form anti-school subcultures.

Answer 105

Paul Willis found this* in ‘Learning to Labour’, and Tony Sewell argues there is an anti-school black masculinity (which is also formed externally, remember!). * Working class boys especially tend to form anti-school subcultures.

Answer 106

Fuller (1984) found that black girls formed pro-school subcultures in response to labelling, where they rejected the school’s racism but worked hard to achieve their goals.

Answer 107

School work is identified by many boys as ‘girly’, and so for many boys their masculine identities rely on a ‘laddishness’; that despises working hard. Sociologists have found that working class boys who work can be bullied and labelled as ‘gay’.

Answer 108

The Feminist Perspective On The Role Of Education What are the Radical Feminist views on this topic? • Radical Feminists argue that patriarchy still works through school to reinforce traditional gender norms and to disadvantage girls. • Some radical feminists see concern over boys’ underachievement as a moral panic. Boys have still been improving their achievement in the last 4 years, just not as fast as girls. The feminist argument is that the focus on education at the moment on ‘raising boys achievement’ reflects a male dominated system panicking at the fact that old patriarchal power relations are starting to break down. • Despite improvements in girls’ education, subject choices still remain heavily gendered – and girls do no seem to be breaking the glass ceiling. • Recent research suggests that despite girls doing well at school – girls are increasingly subject to sexist bullying, something which is becoming worse with the ‘normalisation of pornography’.

Policies relating to social class + deprivation Flashcards

(132 cards)