Gender and achievement: Boys

1. Gender and achievement: Boys • Get you thinking: • Identify the correct statement about boys and achievement • Boys achievement has declined since the 1980’s. • Boys achievement remains higher than girls. • Boys achieve less in every subject when compared to girls at GCSE. • Boys achievement has continued to rise but at a slower pace than girls.

2. Explaining Male Underachievement…… Not only is it important to consider why females are doing so well & improving in education, it is equally important to consider why males seem to be underachieving (again which can be split into external/ internal factors)…. Feminisation of Education: Poor Male Literacy: Sewell (2006): Argues that education has become ‘feminised’ & do not nurture masculine traits. (2007) Argue that the ‘Gender gap’ is the result of poor literacy amongst males. > Reading is ‘Feminised’ > Boys are Socialised to be ‘Active’. Shortage of Male Primary School Teachers: Decline in Manufacturing: Lack of positive make role models: Manufacturing ‘Masculine’ jobs have moved abroad & thus male employment opportunities have been hampered. > DfES (2007): 16% of P.School teachers are male. > Yougov (2007) 39% 0f 8-11 year-olds have no male teachers Mitsos & Browne (1998) suggest that this has created a ‘Crisis of Masculinity’.

3. Task: provide the counter argument • Using page 58 explain why Francis (2006) and Read (2008) are critical of the lack of male teachers argument.

4. Remember to link to Stereotyping, Labelling, the Halo Effect, Warming Up/ Cooling Down, Unequal Access to Classroom Knowledge & the Self-fulfilling Prophecy! Epstein (1998): Over Estimating Own Ability: Barber (1996): Found that boys tend to over-estimate their own ability whilst girls generally under-estimate theirs Stanworth (1983) suggests that boys are more likely to blame lack of effort or teachers for their failure instead of their own lack of ability. Licht & Dweck (1987) support these arguments by highlighting their findings that girls are much less confident than boys. Laddish Subcultures: (W/C) Boys are likely to be called ‘Sissie’ or ‘Swots’, as well as be subject to homophobic harassment if they are seen to be doing their work. Link to Willis (1977) – Learning to Labour ‘Masculinity’ is viewed negatively within education Francis (2001) supports this view by pointing out that boys often get labelled as swots by their peers, this leads them to reject the culture & values of the education system.

5. Ex-Schools Minister Stephen Bryers was quoted as saying: ‘We must challenge the laddish, anti-learning culture which has been allowed to develop over recent years & should not simply accept with a shrug that boys will be boys’. It is important here to highlight that many policies have been implemented to tackle these problems and as such it could be suggested that the problems highlighted here are exaggerated somewhat & that they ignore ‘progression’: DfES (2007) also shows that the Social Class Gap ion education is 3x wider than the Gender Gap. Therefore males & females from the same social group tend not to differ as much. The ‘Raising Boys Achievement Project’ The ‘National Literacy Strategy’ Also, these arguments ignore the Ethnicity Gap in education. The ‘Reading Champions Scheme’ ‘Playing for Success’ Connolly (2006) – ‘The Interactions Effect’ ‘Dads & Sons Campaign’ It is more useful to consider different combinations of Class, Gender & ethnicity when examining differences in achievement.

6. Moral panic over boys • Use page 58 to explain why Ringrose (2013) and Osler (2006) are critical of the policies for boys.