Gender Achievement- Internal Factors
Equal Opportunities
Policies
ERA (1988)- National Curriculum meant that boys and girls studied mostly the same subjects.
Boaler (1998)- Many of the barriers have been removed and schooling has become more meritocratic so that girls generally work harder than boys, therefore achieving higher.
WISE and GIST policies have encouraged females to enter subject areas that are traditionally dominated by males.
Weiner (1995)- Teachers are challenging gender stereotypes more than ever before, e.g. sexist images have been removed from textbooks.
Positive Role Models
More women taking up positions of high responsibility within the education system, particularly in head teacher roles, acting as role models for girls.
Suggested that Primary Schooling is a ‘Feminised’ system which may instil notions of Gender Domain within young pupils from a very early age.
GCSEs and Coursework
Gorard (2005) The gender gap increased dramatically in the academic year of 1988/1999 with the introduction of GCSEs and more coursework based assessments.
Girls can cope with deferred gratification better than boys.
Mitsos and Browne (1998)- Coursework suits girls as they:
- Spend more time on their work
- Take more care in their presentation
- Are more organised than boys (meeting deadlines)
- Bring the right equipment and materials to lessons
Teacher Attention, Stereotyping
and Labelling
Jane and Peter French (1993)- Found boys actually received more attention in the classroom than girls.
Francis (2001)- Boys receive more attention, but it is negative disciplinary attention.
Swann (1998)- Boys dominate discussions whereas girls are more likely to work quietly.
Selection and League Tables
ERA (1988) introduced ‘market principles’ to instigate competition between schools in order to ‘raise standards’.
Schools favour girls as they achieve better results and the best schools can be more selective and recruit more girls and therefore a SPF might occur.
Formula Funding and League tables put pressure on schools to perform.