What are the 4 external factors that impact girls achievement?
- impact of feminism
- changes in the family
- changes in women’s employment
- changing girls ambitions
How has the external factor, impact of feminism, impacted girls achievement?
- Women’s rights and opportunities have improved, which was raised women’s expectations and self-esteem.
- McRobbie did content analysis and found there was a shift in focus in magazines to women being strong and independent. Girls now have female role models outside of school
How has the external factor changes in the family, impacted girls achievement?
- There has been changes like increase in divorce rates, increase in cohabitation, increase in single parents
- Women are now less dependent on men and have to support themselves and take on the breadwinner role. This creates a new adult role model for girls - the financially independent women
- To achieve this, women need well paid jobs and qualifications.
How has the external factor, changes in women’s employment, impacted girls achievement?
- 1970 equal pay act
- 1975 sex discrimination act
- tradition men’s jobs have declined
- women are breaking through the glass ceiling
- Margaret Posser argued many changes in women’s economic participation and achievement. This has encouraged girls to see their future in terms of paid work rather than housewives, girls now work harder and want to do better
How has the change in girls ambitions impact their achievement?
- Sue Sharpe interviewed girls in the 1970s and 1990s
- She found that their ambitions have shifted from love and marriage to a career and independence. In the 1970s, they had low aspirations and felt educational success was unfeminine.
How have changes in the family meant that girls achieve better than boys?
- nuclear family is no longer dominant
- girls are self sufficient
- relationships are now fragmented and no longer need to rely on a man economically so work harder for themselves
What are the 5 internal factors that impact achievement in gender?
- Equal opportunity policies (GIST and WISE)
- Positive role models in school
- GCSE and Coursework
- Teacher attention
- Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
How have equal opportunity policies impacted girls achievement ?
- Jo Boaler argues that equal opportunity policies are a key factor in the improvement of girls performance
- Schools have become more meritocratic meaning that because girls work harder than boys, they achieve more
- stereotypes in education are changing
- GIST and WISE have been introduced to encourage girls into science, technology and engineering.
How have positive role models in school impacted girls achievement?
- Proportion of female teachers and head teachers has increased
- school is a female dominated environment
- Women are breaking through the glass ceiling in terms of head teacher roles, meaning girls have more role models in school
How has coursework impacted girls achievement, according to mists and browne?
- Mitsos and Browne argue that girls are more successful in coursework because they are better organised and more conscientious than boys
- They found girls tend to spend more time on their work, take more care in presentation and are better at keeping to deadlines.
How has teacher attention impacted girls achievement?
- girls are positively labelled and are closer to the ideal pupil. Whereas boys are labelled negatively
- Becky Francis argues boys get more attention but are disciplined more harshly and feel picked on by teachers who have lower expectations of them
- Joan Swann found boys dominate whole class discussion and girls prefer group work and listening
- This may explain why teachers respond more positively to girls, whom they see as cooperative, than to boys, who they see as disruptive
What did Swann find out teacher attention?
Swann found boys dominate whole class discussion and girls prefer group work and listening
What did Becky Francis find out teacher attention?
Becky Francis argues boys get more attention but are disciplined more harshly and feel picked on by teachers
How has stereotypes being challenged in the curriculum raised girls achievement?
- Weiner argues sexist images have been removed from teaching materials has helped raise girls achievement by presenting more positive images of what women are capable of.
How has selection and league tables improved girls achievement?
- Marketisation policies and greater use of selection have created a competitive climate among schools
- Girls are seen as more desirable recruits as they achieve better exams results. (David Jackson)
- Boys are seen as ‘liability students’ who are barriers to efforts by schools to climb the league tables.
- This tends to produce a self fulfilling prophecy which girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools and more likely to do well.
who discusses girls being seen as more appealing for league tables
David Jackson, girls seen more appealing
What are the radical feminist views on education?
-reinforces patriarchal ideas
- objections women and girls
- sex typing of subjects
- glass ceiling of male headteachers
- sports is not feminine
- male gaze/ double standards
- sexual harassment
What statistics show that class differences impact girls achievement?
-In 2013, only 40.6% of girls from poorer families achieved 5 A* - C grades at GCSE
Why are boys underachieving?
- decline in males jobs due to globalisation
- less male role models in school
- boys don’t respond well to female teachers due to lack of disciplinary discourse
- boys have lower literacy due to it being seen as a girl thing
- peer group pressure
Define hyper hetero sexual feminine identities
idea by archer
working class girls invest time in looking good which is in opposition to the school
- gets them symbolic capital from friends but symbolic violence from school
What did Sharpe discuss?
She compared interviews with girls in the 1970s and 1990s. She found that in the 1970s girls had a priority of love and marriage and thought education was unfeminine. Whereas, in the 1990s, girls’ ambitions had changed, and they were more career focused and independent.
- How have equal opportunities impacted gender differences in achievement?
It has meant girls and boys now have the same opportunity to succeed. Policies like GIST and WISE have been introduced to encourage girls into subjects like science, engineering, and tech.
- discussed by jo boaler
- What did Spender discuss?
Spender argues teachers spend more time interacting with boys than with girls.
- Why have boys fallen behind girls in education?
They are disciplined more harshly and feel picked on by teachers who have lower expectations of them. These teachers aren’t encouraging boys, whilst they do girls.
