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More education and gender (Explaining male underachievement (Dep for…
More education and gender
Feminism POV
Lib fems see these improvements as positive step in breaking down gender equality. Arguing it shows meritocracy.
Radical feminists are more critical still seeing education system as partriarchal and suggest the following: Sexual harrassment continues, female subject choice still restricted, male teachers more likely to head secondary schools, history subjects are women free zones according to Weiner
Criticisms of internal factors include Janette Elwood, arguing exams more important than coursework and therefore counters argument of more coursework benefitting girls
Lobban found that out of 179 stories used in primary schools, women usually represented in traditional domestic roles
Women still paid generally less in employment
Explaining male underachievement
Dep for schools and families state that gender gap is due to poor literacy and that reading is feminised whilst boys are socialised to be more active
Decline in manufacturing and masculine jobs means opportunities are hampered
Sewell: feminisation of education, argues that education is more feminised and does not nurture masculine traits
Shortage of male primary teachers mean lack of role models, DfES state that 16% of primary teachers are male and yougov found that 39%of 8-11 yr olds have no male teacher
Barber found boys tend to over estimate own ability and Stanworth (1983) suggests that boys are more likely to blame teachers or lack of effort rather than own ability, girls less confident than boys
Laddish subcultures: Epstein, W/c boys get labelled by others if seen doing their work. Masculinity is viewed negatively within education and Francis (2001) supports this view by pointing out boys get labelled by piers leading them to reject the values of education system
Other issues affecting male underachievement
Ex school minister Stephen Bryers quoted 'we must challenge the laddish, anti learning culture that has been allowed to develop and should not simply accept it with the shrug that boys will be boys'
Self fulfilling prophecy and labelling
DfES (2007) also shows that the social class gap in education is 3x wider than the gender gap, therefore males and females from the same social group achieve the same
These arguments ignore ethnicity gap
Connolly (2006) the interactions effect, it is more useful to consider different combinations of class gender and ethnicity when examining difference in achievement
Policies that have been implemented to tackle these issues
The 'raising boys achievement project'
The 'national literacy strategy
The reading champions scheme
Playing for success
Dads and son campaign