Internal factors regarding GCSEs and Coursework
gender and achievement
- Mitsos and Browne
- GCSEs/Coursework They believe girls do better in coursework because they are more conscientious and
- Teacher Attention better organised than boys.
- Challenging stereotypes They spend more time on their work, take more care in presentation, meet deadlines
- Selection and and bring the right equipment.
League Tables
Equally, along with the introduction of GCSE’s came greater use of oral exams.
- Girls’
This benefitted girls more than boys due to their generally better
Identities
developed language skills.
and Social Teacher
Class
This is all seen to be a product of gender socialisation; Attention
girls are socialised to be neat, tidy and patient; all
qualities which are inevitably advantageous Girls are generally seen as
in today’s assessment system. cooperative within the
classroom setting, whereas
Evaluation boys have more scope for
being disruptive.
Working Class girls have a different vision
of what it is to be successful. Their caring This can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies as girls will have
nature means they want to stay home or at successful interactions with the teacher, leading to higher
least close to home in order to contribute to Education - self-esteem. On the other hand boys might be sanctioned
the family Gender and more easily with lower expectations of them as a result.
Achievement
They wish to attend university, as this will allow them to earn more
(Internal Challenging stereotypes In the 1970/1980s, school textbooks
money, but again this isn’t self-interest, they wish to do this more so
that they are able to help their families. Factors) often portrayed women negatively;
scared of science/maths etc.
Despite the fact they have However, since then teachers
adopted ‘traditional’ caring traits, Selection and have began to challenge these
the W/C girls consider League Tables stereotypes. This in turn is able to
themselves successful although Girls’ Identities and Social Class broaden girls’ achievement.
generally going against the ideas Girls are seen as more
held by schools. On average, girls achieve more highly than in the past,
but this is not always going to be the case for all girls. attractive students as they are
less likely to cause problems in
- Archer comparison to boys.
↑ explains this through noting the conflict between working-class girls’
feminine identities and the values and ethos that the school holds.
By enacting their feminine identities, the W/C girls gained symbolic capital from their peers In terms of marketisation policies, girls are also more
but came into conflict with the schools values, preventing them from accessing educational likely to make the school look good on the league
capital and thus economic capital. tables with their generally better grades.
Several strategies used by W/C girls were identified in order to create a valued sense of self:
This in turn presents boys as
- Hyper-Heterosexual Identities (Spending time on appearance earned symbolic capital) ‘liability students’ who are more
- Boyfriends (Symbolic capital however disrupted school work and encouraged ‘settling down’ likely to be excluded and less likely
to engage with lessons.
- Being ‘Loud’ (Loud personalities and being in conflict with teachers gave symbolic capital)
gender and achievement
- Mitsos and Browne
- GCSEs/Coursework They believe girls do better in coursework because they are more conscientious and
- Teacher Attention better organised than boys.
- Challenging stereotypes They spend more time on their work, take more care in presentation, meet deadlines
- Selection and and bring the right equipment.
League Tables
Equally, along with the introduction of GCSE’s came greater use of oral exams.
- Girls’
This benefitted girls more than boys due to their generally better
Identities
developed language skills.
and Social Teacher
Class
This is all seen to be a product of gender socialisation; Attention
girls are socialised to be neat, tidy and patient; all
qualities which are inevitably advantageous Girls are generally seen as
in today’s assessment system. cooperative within the
classroom setting, whereas
Evaluation boys have more scope for
being disruptive.
Working Class girls have a different vision
of what it is to be successful. Their caring This can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies as girls will have
nature means they want to stay home or at successful interactions with the teacher, leading to higher
least close to home in order to contribute to Education - self-esteem. On the other hand boys might be sanctioned
the family Gender and more easily with lower expectations of them as a result.
Achievement
They wish to attend university, as this will allow them to earn more
(Internal Challenging stereotypes In the 1970/1980s, school textbooks
money, but again this isn’t self-interest, they wish to do this more so
that they are able to help their families. Factors) often portrayed women negatively;
scared of science/maths etc.
Despite the fact they have However, since then teachers
adopted ‘traditional’ caring traits, Selection and have began to challenge these
the W/C girls consider League Tables stereotypes. This in turn is able to
themselves successful although Girls’ Identities and Social Class broaden girls’ achievement.
generally going against the ideas Girls are seen as more
held by schools. On average, girls achieve more highly than in the past,
but this is not always going to be the case for all girls. attractive students as they are
less likely to cause problems in
- Archer comparison to boys.
↑ explains this through noting the conflict between working-class girls’
feminine identities and the values and ethos that the school holds.
By enacting their feminine identities, the W/C girls gained symbolic capital from their peers In terms of marketisation policies, girls are also more
but came into conflict with the schools values, preventing them from accessing educational likely to make the school look good on the league
capital and thus economic capital. tables with their generally better grades.
Several strategies used by W/C girls were identified in order to create a valued sense of self:
This in turn presents boys as
- Hyper-Heterosexual Identities (Spending time on appearance earned symbolic capital) ‘liability students’ who are more
- Boyfriends (Symbolic capital however disrupted school work and encouraged ‘settling down’ likely to be excluded and less likely
to engage with lessons.
- Being ‘Loud’ (Loud personalities and being in conflict with teachers gave symbolic capital)
