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Answer
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Hint
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Michael Ward (2015)
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This sociologist suggests boys can reject 'macho' culture and adopt 'geek' identities. He also found that traditional working-class behaviour displayed by some males does not mean they reject the importance of education. However, the 'Geeks' adapted better than the 'Boiz' to changing social attitudes.
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Carrie Paechter (1998)
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This sociologist found that homophobic abuse was directed towards girls who are seen as 'sporty' - which was seen as 'manly'. Due to sport being seen as mainly within the male gender domain, girls who were seen this way had to cope with an image that contradicts the conventional female stereotype, which may explain why girls are more likely than boys to opt out of sport.
Overall, she sees name-calling as helping to shape gender identity and maintain male power. The use of negative labels such as 'gay', 'queer' and 'lezzie' are ways in which pupils police each other's sexual identities. |
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Barbara Read (2008)
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This sociologist is critical of the view that education has become 'feminised'. She defines the term 'Disciplinarian Discourse': -The teacher's authority is made explicit and visible. -For example, through shouting, an 'exasperated' tone of voice or sarcasm. -Through her study of 51 teachers (25 male, 26 female), she found the majority used this to control pupil's behaviour. -Therefore, this disproved the feminisation as female teachers were using more 'masculine authority'. She defines the term 'Liberal Discourse': -Teacher's authority is implicit and invisible - involving pseudo-adultification.
Pseudo-adultification - When a teacher speaks to the pupil as if they were an adult, expecting them to be kind, sensible and respectful to the teacher. |
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Malcolm Haase (2008)
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This sociologist stated, that although women make up the majority of primary teachers, it is better to think of primary schools as male-dominated or a 'masculinised educational structure that is numerically dominated by women.'.
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Connolly (2016)
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This sociologist found literacy differences were consistent between social classes, highlighting gender as a key factor for this.
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Deborah Jones (2006)
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This sociologist found that in the UK, male teachers have a 1 in 4 chance of gaining a headship, whereas for female teachers, it is only 1 in 13.
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Tony Sewell (2006)
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This sociologist is reported as claiming that boys fall behind in educational achievement because education has become 'feminised': -Schools do not nurture 'masculine' traits such as competitiveness and leadership. -Schools celebrate qualities more closely associated with girls, such as methodical working and attentiveness in class. He also sees coursework as a major cause of gender differences in achievement: -He argues that some coursework should be replaced with final exams and a greater emphasis placed on outdoor adventure in the curriculum. -He states, "We have challenged in the 1950s patriarchy and rightly said this is not a man's world. But we have thrown the boy out with the bath water.". |
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DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2007)
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This Government Department said the gender gap in achievement is mainly the result of boys' poorer literacy and language skills. This may be because: -Parents spend less time reading to their sons. -It is mothers who do most of the reading to young children, who thus come to see reading as a feminine activity. -Boys' leisure pursuits, such as football, do little to help develop their language and communication skills. -Girls tend to have a 'bedroom culture', centred on staying in and talking with friends. |
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Answer
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Máirtín Mac an Ghaill (1994)
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This sociologist found the crisis of masculinity to be a reaction to the changing structure of employment and the decline of traditional male working-class jobs.
In this same study, he examines how peer groups reproduce a range of different class-based masculine gender identities: -Working-class 'macho lads' were dismissive of other working-class boys who worked hard and aspired to middle-class careers, referring to them as the 'dickhead achievers'. -Middle-class 'real Englishmen' projected an image of 'effortless achievement' - of succeeding without trying (though in some cases actually working hard 'on the quiet').
At an unspecified date, he also refers to the 'male gaze' - the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearance:
-He sees the male gaze as a form of surveillance through which dominant heterosexual masculinity is reinforced and femininity devalued.
-It is one of the ways boys prove their masculinity to their friends and is often combined with constant telling and retelling of stories about sexual conquests.
-Boys who do not display their heterosexuality in this way run the risk of being labelled as 'gay'. |
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Audrey Osler (2006)
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This sociologist notes: -The focus on underachieving boys has led to a neglect of girls. This is partly because girls often disengage from school quietly. -By contrast, boys' disengagement often takes the form of public displays of 'laddish' masculinity that attract attention from teachers and policymakers. -Mentoring schemes aimed at reducing school exclusions among Black boys ignore the problem of exclusions among girls, which are increasing more rapidly. Excluded girls are less likely to obtain places in pupil referral units. Official exclusion rates also mask a wider, hidden problem of exclusion among girls, including self-exclusion and internal exclusion. |
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Carolyn Jackson (2006)
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This sociologist used questionnaires and interviews to study 'lads' and 'ladettes'. She found: -It wasn't just working-class boys who formed laddish subcultures. -Middle-class students were better able to balance work and social life due to their resources (internet, etc.) -Laddishness = messing about in class, being loud, sporty, cheeking teachers, seeing classwork as uncool. For girls, their appearance was also very important to them. |
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Jonathan Gershuny (1994)
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This sociologist suggests gender socialisation is failing to equip boys with skills for 21st century society - lagged adaptation.
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Jessica Ringrose (2013)
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This sociologist evaluated Carolyn Jackon's work on 'lads' and 'ladettes' and argued these views have contributed to a moral panic which reflects a fear that underachieving working-class boys will become the unemployable under-class.
Writing more specifically about this moral panic, she states it has caused a major shift in educational policy, which is now pre-occupied with raising boys' achievements. This had 2 negative effects: 1. By narrowing equal opportunities policy down simply to 'failing boys', it ignores the problem of disadvantaged working-class and minority ethnic pupils. 2. By narrowing gender policy down solely to the issue of achievement gaps, it ignores other problems faced by girls in school. These include sexual harassment and bullying, self-esteem and identity issues, and stereotyped subject choices.
Her small-scale study of 13-14-year-old working-class girls' peer groups in a South Wales School, found that being popular was crucial to the girls' identity. As the girls made a transition from a girls' friendship culture into a heterosexual dating culture, they faced a tension between: -An idealised feminine identity of showing loyalty to the female peer group, being non-competitive and getting along with everybody in the friendship culture. -A sexualised identity that involved competing for boys in the dating culture. |
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Moss & Washbrook (2016)
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These sociologists found that boys are 6% to 12% more likely to be below the standard required for literacy skills than girls at ages 5, 7 and 11.
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Debbie Epstein (1998)
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This sociologist examined masculine identity constructed in school: -She found working-class boys were harassed, labelled as 'sissies', verbally abused (especially homophobic abuse) and labelled as swots/nerds if they didn't take part in laddish subcultures. -Working-class culture equates masculinity with toughness, and doing manual work. Non-manual work is seen as effeminate (this links with Paul Willis' study on laddish subcultures). |
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