Gender has an important impact on the educational experience of individuals. While together the sexes have raised their level of achievement, some significant changes have occurred in recent years, where girls have outperformed boys. The rapid pace at which girls' outcomes have improved has led to a substantial gap between them and boys. There are several key factors that have a strong influence on what tends to cause gender differences in outcomes and I will focus on internal factors, for example within schools and the education system, and external factors, for example at home and in society in general. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Factors within the education system and schools are critical and play an important role in clarifying gender differences in outcomes. It cannot be ignored that feminist ideas have had a huge influence on the education system and have significantly increased awareness on gender issues where schools and teachers are more sensitive to the need to prevent gender stereotypes. The acceptance that boys and girls are equally efficient and have the same opportunities is now a fragment of the traditional vision of education and certainly influences educational policies. Examples of policies include the National Curriculum which was introduced in 1988, which had eliminated one of the causes of gender inequality by presenting the idea that both boys and girls had to study the same subjects, which in the past was very rare or not common; encourage girls to work harder and achieve more. This results in helping to balance opportunities for all pupils and enabling the removal of past barriers. Boaler (2002) sees changes in girls' outcomes and "as a result, many feminists and others with equity concerns have developed a number of initiatives that have been successful in increasing girls' outcomes, if not their continued participation ... and stereotyped attitudes". … because girls are largely disappearing.' (Boaler, 2002, p.137-138). According to the Department for Education, official statistics on the gender of school staff “nearly three in four teachers are female and four in five school staff are female. Percentage of full-time equivalent school staff by gender: November 2016 73.9% of FTE teachers are women. 84.6% of FTE teachers in nursery/primary schools are women and 62.5% of teachers in secondary schools. 91.4% of teaching assistants and 82.2% of school support staff are women. Overall, 80.2% of school staff are women. The percentage of female teachers has clearly increased over time and in 2010, 72.9% of full-time equivalent teachers were female and this percentage has increased year on year. In 2016, 73.9% of full-time equivalent teachers were women.' As there has been a growth in the amount of female teachers in schools in recent years, this creates active and optimistic role models for girls, encouraging them to have high aspirations. Having women in roles of authority provides girls with non-gender-stereotypical goals and outcomes to aspire to: to become a teacher, one must go through a prosperous and time-consuming education herself. This can be strongly criticized as it could be argued that the education system has been 'feminised' resulting in boys falling behind due to schools not encouraging mannerisms“masculine”, for example competitiveness and leadership. Some sociologists argue that changes have been made to the curriculum with how students are assessed, which have disadvantaged boys and are even more ideal for girls. Gorard (2005) suggests that the gender achievement gap is a “product of changing assessment systems rather than any more general failure of children”. Gender gap Attainment was ever-present, but Gorard points out that it had skyrocketed in the year GCSEs were introduced and that coursework was the main assessment for most subjects. It is believed that girls are more successful in courses because they are more diligent and organized than boys. Factors that helped girls benefit from the introduction of courses include the ability to meet deadlines, spend more time on work, and care and engage in presentation. Mitsos and Browne (1998) also reveal that girls benefit from maturing earlier than boys and their ability to concentrate longer. These skills and characteristics that girls possess are the result of early gender role socialization at home, i.e. girls are taught to be tidy, clean, and to be tougher than boys are encouraged to be. In contrast, Elwood (2005) criticizes this and proposes that, although coursework has some influence, it is unlikely that it is the sole driver of the gender gap in achievement. Exploring the importance of coursework and written exams, he establishes that exams have an additional influence on final grades than coursework. The way teachers interact with pupils is another influential internal factor. These interactions vary between boys and girls as Spender (1983) indicates that teachers spend more time interacting with boys than girls. However, although Francis (2001) found that boys received more attention than girls, they were disciplined more harshly and felt they were being targeted by teachers while having lower expectations of them. Francis highlighted that the "crisis of masculinity" is lowering boys' confidence to the point that they no longer have the motivation or confidence to achieve. (Francis, 2001, p.2) The way teachers interacted with the girls was much more progressive as conversations were more focused on lesson tasks rather than disciplinary topics. Swann (1998) pointed out that there are gender differences in communication styles where "male students' tendency to 'dominate' the classroom discussion" (Swann, 1998, p.148), while girls are better at listen and collaborate and they would be better at listening. more interactive when working in pairs or small groups. Teachers prefer the characteristics presented by female students and could explain why teachers respond more positively to girls and increase their self-esteem. The elimination of gender stereotypes in textbooks and other educational materials in recent years has challenged stereotypes in the curriculum and removed barriers in girls. ' result. This pushes them by introducing them to more positive concepts of what women can be capable of, different from what they have seen previously, for example images of women portrayed as mothers or housewives, etc. While there were clear internal factors that influenced changes in the curriculum and differences in gender outcomes, there were also external factors that contributed. Society at large plays an important role as the impact of feminism on the larger society today has increased theawareness and led to many changes occurring. The social movement of feminism has challenged traditional/stereotypical views of the role and power of women, making them inferior to men both inside and outside the home, at work, in education and before the law. This movement has certainly improved the opportunities of women in society as a whole. Changes within the family are also another common external factor as there has been an increase in rates of divorce and single mothers, giving girls a completely different attitude, encouraging them to take education seriously to secure a role of head of the family in the absence of the male. . This newfound financial independence for women creates the need for them to obtain the qualifications required to obtain well-paid jobs. Changes in women's employment work in their favor, including 1) the introduction of the Equal Pay Act of 1970, 2) the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, 3) the flexibility and growth of the service sector offering part-time positions. time have presented many perspectives for women. “In the 30 years since the Equal Pay Act there have been many changes in women's economic participation and outcomes. More women are working today than ever before... accessing training and jobs that previous generations would not have considered accessible to women.' (Prosser, 2006, p.1) This creates an incentive for girls to go out into the world and gain qualifications to be the best they can be. It therefore became more evident that changes in family and work led to changes in girls' ambitions. Sociological research evidence to support this view includes Shapre (1994) comparing the results of interviews he conducted with girls in the 1970s and 1990s. The results of his study show important changes in the participants' ambitions and how they see themselves in the near future. In 1974, the girls surveyed had low aspirations, prioritizing obtaining "love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs and careers, more or less in that order." The girls revealed that appearing intelligent and ambitious was seen as unattractive and unfeminine. However, by the 1990s, when another interview was conducted, the ambitions had completely changed and their priorities were now in a different order. Sharpe found that girls now would rather be career-driven and independent than stay at home and dependent on a husband. Despite progress in girls' attainment relative to boys, there still remains a familiar display of 'boys' and 'girls' subjects where boys tend to opt for subjects that appear more masculine, for example mathematics and physics, whilst girls are more likely to prefer languages or literature. The school more or less emphasizes gender inequality in numerous ways, both within the curriculum and in communication between teachers and pupils and also between pupils with each other. When the national curriculum was introduced, it removed the choice for most pupils to choose or drop subjects, making most subjects compulsory until the age of 16. However, where choice is possible, for example at GCSE or A level, across the education system there are some clear gender differences in subject choice. Where there is choice, even if design and technology are mandatory, girls will still choose the food technology option while boys will choose durable materials or graphics. Gendered subject choices are more evident after the National Curriculum, when students have more choice, for example at A level or.
tags