Internal

• Swann and Gradol

  High female achievement is a result of the quality of interaction they have with their teachers
• Jackson

  Schools label boys negatively, teaching resources less likely to stereotype girls into passive roles
• Archer

  Underachievement by boys masks problems girls face = high achieving Asian girls get labelled as robots and incapable of independent thought
• Feminisation of education

  • Sewell = Teaching became feminised > schools don't nurture masculine traits like competitiveness and leadership and instead celebrate qualities with girls like methodical working and attentiveness > boys feel under-valued in education and underachieve
  • Boys still dominate lessons and take up more of the teachers' time
• Selection and marketisation

  • Jackson = introduction of league tables has improved opportunities for girls: high achieving girls are attractive to schools whereas low-achieving boys are not > self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Slee = boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to suffer from behavioral problems and more likely to be excluded
• GCSEs and Coursework

  • Mitsos and Brown = girls are more successful in coursework because they're more conscientious and better organised
  • Elwood = unlikely to be only cause of gender gap because exams have more influence than coursework in final grades
• Subcultures

  • Willis = boys were negatively labelled at school because they didn't care for education and formed a subculture that thrived off failure
  • Francis = boys were more concerned than girls about being labelled by peers because it's a threat to their masculinity
  • Fuller = studied black girls, got negatively labelled and worked hard to prove label wrong
• Hyper-heterosexual identities

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