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BOYS & ACHIEVEMENT - Coggle Diagram
BOYS & ACHIEVEMENT
BOYS & LITERACY
- According to DCSF the gender gap is mainly the result of boys poorer literacy & language skills
- one reason for this may be that parents spend less time reading to their sons
- another reason may be that it is mothers who do most of the reading to young children, who come to the conclusion that reading is a feminine activity
- in addition boys leisure pursuits e.g football do little to develop their language & communication skills
- by contrast girls tend to have a 'bedroom culture' centred on staying in and talking with friends
- poor language and literacy skills are likely to affect boys performance across a Wye range of subjects
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LADDISH SUBCULTURES
- The growth of laddish subcultures has contributed to boys underachievemnt
- EPSTEIN found that working class boys are more likely to be harassed, labelled as sissies and subject to homophobic abuse
- EPSTEINS findings is supported by FRANCIS who found that boys were more concerned with girls about being labelled by peers as swots because it is more of a threat to their masculinity tan it is to girls femininity
- this is because in working class culture, masculinity is equated with being tough and doing manual work
- non-manual work is seen as inferior
- as a result, working class boys tend to reject schoolwork to avoid being called gay
- As epstein observes, 'real boys dont work'- and If they do they get bullied
- according to Francis, laddish subcultire is becoming increasingly widespread
- this is because as girls move into traditionally masculine areas such as careers, boys respond by becoming increasingly ;laddish in their effort to construct themselves as non-feminine
MORAL PANIC ABOUT BOYS
- critics of feminism argue that policies to promote girls education are no loner needed
- they speak of gils today 'having it all'and of women taking mens jobs
- they believe girls have succeeded at the expense of boys, who are the new disadvantaged
- RINGROSE, a feminist these views have contributed to a moral panic about 'failing boys'
- this moral panic reflects a fear that underachieving w/c boys will grow up to become dangerous and unemployable and a threat to social stability
- RINGORSE argues that this moral panic had caused a major shift in educational policies which is now preoccupied with raising boys achievement
- This policy shift has had 2 negative effects:
- by narrowing equal opportunities down simply to 'failing boys', it has ignored the problem of disadvantaged working class and minority ethnic pupils
- by narrowing gender policy down solely to the issue of achievemnt gaps, it ignores problems being faced by girls in school egg sexual harassment & bullying
- OSLER notes that the focus on underachieving boys has led to the neglect of girld
- partly because girls often disengage from schools quietly whereas boys takes form of public displays of 'laddish masculinity' attracting teacher attention