“The fact that girls do better than boys is more to do with factors outside of the school rather than factors inside of the school.” To what extent do you agree with this view?
If we look at exam results such as GCSEs and A levels there is a clear picture of girls outperforming boys. Girls are also more likely to pass their A levels and go on to university. These gender and differential educational achievement have been explained by the influence of factors both inside and outside of the school.
Many sociologists have argued that it is factors inside the school that have led to this increase in girls’ performance. It has been argued that feminism has had a huge role in female achievement in education. Mitsos and Browne say that teaching has been feminised and teachers have lower expectations of boys. They say that women are more likely to be classroom teachers and this is therefore giving girls positive role models. There has also been the change in teaching resources used at schools as many sexist images have been removed and they are less likely to stereotype girls into passive roles. Interpretivists say that teachers have lower expectations of boys. Teacher’s expectations may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of poor behaviour. Negative labelling may explain why there are more disruptive boy and why boys are more likely to be excluded from school. Jackson agrees with this view arguing that schools label boys negatively which leads to self-fulfilling prophecy.
The introduction of the National Curriculum forced girls to do traditional male subjects. For example more girls started doing science at GCSE. Other local Education Authority and government initiatives tried to encourage girls to do these subjects. Now, GCSEs include more coursework than earlier qualifications. Some people argue that coursework suits girls better because they put in more effort and are