Boys achievement

• Lack of male role models -internal

  • some argue that the culture of primary school has become feminised by predominately female staff who are unable to control boys behaviour
  • sociologists believe that male teachers act as a role model to boys and are able to impose strict discipline which is needed to help boys concentrate on work Evaluation
  • Francis found that 2/3 7-8 year olds believed that the gender of the teachers doesn't matter
• Teacher attention -internal

  • Feedback fro boys from teachers is focused more on their behaviour not work
  • negative teacher labelling for some boys undermine their confidence and intrest in school
  • Teachers tend to be less strict with boys, giving them more leeway with deadlines, This can allow boys to underachieve by failing to push them to achieve their potential

  evaluation

  • labels can be rejected
• laddish subcultures-internal

  • Epstein found that working class boys are likely to be labled ‘sissies’ and subjected to homophobic abuse is they appear to be swots
  • boys reject school to avid been called gay by peers and maintain their masculine domain

  evaluation

  • Cohen argues that the question is not why are boys underachieving, but why boys underachievement has now caught an object of concern. She believes it is because discussions about academic success and determination all have boys as their main object.
• Mitsos and Browne emphasised that mothers are more likely to read to their children than fathers, therefore it is viewed as feminine and girls are more likely to read due to same sex role models putting boys at a disadvantage
• Poor language and literacy skills are likely to affect boys' performance across a wide range of subjects
• The labour government introduced policies such as the national literacy strategy to improve literacy


  1998
• This strategy did have a greater impact on boys than girls
• However, there is still a gap which suggests the strategy did not completely work and suggests that literacy skills is not the only reason for the gender gap
• The decline of traditional main jobs-external

  • a decline in traditional manual jobs may result in working class boys loosing motivation
  • Mitsos and brown argue that the lack of employment opportunities has lead to a crisis of masculinity as many boys believe they have little chance to get a proper job

  evaluation

  • most of the manual jobs are unskilled or semi skilled which would require little to no qualifications therfor it would seem that the disappearance of jobs wouldnt have had much of an impact on boys motivation to gain qualifications
• unrealistic expectations -external

  • Research suggests that boys are often surprised when the fail exams and tend to put this down to bad luck rather than a lack of effort
  • Francis points out that boys have unrealistic career aspirations that require few formal qualifications such as a footballer