Underperformance or ‘getting it right’? Constructions of gender and achievement in the Australian inquiry into boys’ education

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students’ poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys’ Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with ‘authentic’ learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and ‘inauthentic learning’ worked to undermine female students’ demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed.     

Young black males: resilience and the use of capital to transform school ‘failure’

This article addresses the idea of ‘failure’ of young black males with respect to schooling. Perceptions of black masculinity are often linked to ‘underperformance’ in the context of school academic achievement. This article addresses how young black men, by great personal effort, recover from school ‘failure’. It explores how young black men, despite negative school experiences, see possibilities for their future and how they seek to transform school ‘failure’ into personal and educational ‘success’. Low attainment combined with permanent/temporary exclusion from school does not necessarily deter young black men from pursuing their education. This low attainment is used by some to make a renewed attempt at educational progression in a different post-school learning environment. Yosso’s concept of ‘community cultural wealth’ provides an understanding of how different forms of capital are accessed by young black men to form a ‘turnaround narrative’. This article considers the complex ways in which young black males work to transform their negative school experience. Their narratives reveal a determination to succeed and the ways in which cultivation of this determination by the family, organisational/community agents promotes a sense of possibility. However, it remains to be seen how, in the UK, the cuts to vital local services and support will impact on this sense of possibility.     

Gender,achievement and the ‘Gold Standard’: differential performance in the GCE A level examination

ABSTRACT

While interest in gender‐related differences in performance in examinations and assessment in the UK has been considerable, it has tended to focus on the compul‐ sory phase of schooling, particularly at age 16. This lack of attention to gender‐related differences in examinations at 18+ is somewhat surprising since outcomes at this stage of education are critical in terms of life chances and entry into higher and further edu‐ cation. This article discusses the picture of gendered achievement in the GCE A level examination. Trends in differential performance over time are examined and expla‐ nations put forward as to why these differences in performance occur. Explanations proposed cover links between gendered styles of learning and the style of examining; the statistical and educational impact of self‐selecting populations on performance patterns; and the contribution of different assessment techniques to differences in male and female examination performance. Finally, suggestions of where action might be taken to rectify the differences observed are given. The discussion in the article is supported by data from two research projects that have studied in detail the inter‐ action of examination systems and gender.     

Countering and exceeding ‘capital’: a ‘funds of knowledge’ approach to re-imagining community

This article discusses how the ‘funds of knowledge’ approach (FoK) offers a socially just alternative to the logics of capital, by drawing on knowledge assets from students’ family and community lifeworlds to build engaging and rigorous learning, supporting school–community interactions that build capacities. We explain how we applied FoK in an action research project – Redesigning Pedagogies in the North (RPiN) – to design curriculum and pedagogy in schools of a high-poverty region. With reference to RPiN, we also observe how high-poverty regions, and their schools, appear to be undergoing complex unsettlements, as effects of globalisation, which raise problematic questions about who/what is ‘the local community’. We argue that this calls for new thinking, both sociological and ethical, which can refine the FoK approach to take fuller account of the diverse and complex spaces of social-historical life in new times. We conclude by considering a pedagogical approach through which learners in such regions can re-imagine hopeful forms of community.     

Science teachers’ perceptions of the appeal of science subjects to boys and girls

Science teachers’ perceptions of the type of subject that appeals to 14 year old pupils were investigated using bi‐polar semantic differential rating scales. It was found that science teachers believe that boys and girls prefer significantly different subject characteristics. Teachers’ beliefs about the subject characteristics preferred by boys are closer to the perceived characteristics of school science, as judged on the same semantic differential scales, than is the case for girls. Teachers perceive the characteristics of school science to be much less attractive to girls. A comparison between the responses from groups of science teachers and pupils revealed that teachers believe that boys’ and girls’ preferences for subject characteristics are more dissimilar than they actually are. Girls’ preferences are closer to those of boys and to the characteristics associated with school science than teachers realize.     

Female paths to adulthood in a country of ‘genderless gender’

In this article the life history of a young Finnish woman, Salla, is explored along with reflections of her best friend and other peers. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of Finland as a country of ‘genderless gender’, where mute or hidden gendering and sexualisation converge with the gender-neutral rhetoric about the individual self. Structural and individual understandings of ambivalence are used to analyse Salla's tensions when she tries to realise her own expectations and those of the Finnish context. Ambivalence appears in relation to education, in relation to heterosexual partnerships, career and family as well as in relation to Finland as a country of genderless gender with a myth of gender equality. The article draws from an ethnographically grounded longitudinal life historical study on young people's paths to adulthood.     

‘I’ve been sort of laddish with them … one of the gang’: teachers’ perceptions of ‘laddish’ boys and how to deal with them

Concerns about schoolboy ‘laddish’ anti‐learning and/or anti‐school cultures are pervasive in current education discourses. Mandates to tackle laddishness frequently assume that there is a common understanding of what laddishness means, and also that teachers will know how to tackle it. This article explores these assumptions, drawing upon data generated during interviews with 30 secondary school teachers working in England. First, it maps out the key features of laddishness identified by the secondary school teachers. Second, it explores and critically evaluates the strategies that these teachers use, or advocate, for tackling laddishness, focusing particularly on the ways in which these are gendered. The paper closes with a discussion of the different agendas that may underpin attempts to tackle laddishness, and the pitfalls to avoid if teachers are to enhance learning and promote social justice.     

Encouraging the transfer of ‘school’ mathematics to the ‘real world’ through the integration of process and content,context and culture

This paper reports upon a research project which considered the transfer of students' mathematical understanding across different task contexts. The research involved two groups of students from contrasting learning environments. The first environment was characterised by the complete integration of mathematical process and content using open ended activities. The second environment represented a typical English classroom with a content based scheme being predominantly used. The research demonstrated that the procedure and performance of students in response to addition and fraction tasks varied considerably when the context of the tasks changed. This variation suggested that students' perceptions of the contexts were individually constructed and contexts did not have a uniform effect upon the difficulty of tasks. The research also suggested that students who had learned in an environment characterised by the integration of process and content were more able to transfer their learning across contexts. Students who had learned mathematical process independently of content were more likely to vary their procedure and performance in response to the contexts of the tasks. This was considered in relation to the problems of school — real world transfer and the effectiveness of different learning environments.     

Pygmalion and the gender gap: do teacher expectations contribute to differences in achievement between boys and girls at the beginning of schooling?

ABSTRACT

This study examined the role of teacher expectations in the emerging gender gaps in reading and mathematics in the first year of schooling. Therefore, we first investigated whether boys and girls differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Second, we analysed whether gender-specific effects of teacher expectations contribute to gender achievement gaps. Our analyses were based on 1,025 first-grade students in Germany. Among the majority of the students, boys and girls did not differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Further analyses examined a subgroup of students who were targets of relatively strong teacher expectation bias and who showed unexpectedly high or low achievement gains. In this specific subgroup, girls’ mathematics achievement was more adversely affected by negatively biased expectations and benefitted less from positive bias than boys’ achievement. Mediation analyses revealed that teacher expectation bias did not substantially contribute to gender gaps in reading or mathematics.     

‘Sensible girls’ and ‘silly boys’: what do teachers need to know about gender?

Much to the consternation of many feminist researchers, teacher education programs have become largely silent about gender and the influence of gender discourses on teaching and learning. Stereotypical views of males and females can dominate teachers’ views of boys and girls, and they can be seen as essentially different—as binary opposites. This has implications for identity construction of children as they take up or resist the identity positions made available to them by the teacher. In this paper, the intersection of gender with culture/ethnicity is examined in the context of identity construction. Classroom-based data are considered in relation to a ‘sensible girls/silly boys’ binary, and the teacher’s positioning of a Chinese heritage boy and Korean heritage girl in a New Zealand primary classroom. We suggest that the teacher’s discursive practices based on unexamined assumptions, limited the identity positions available to the children in relation to gender and culture. We argue that teacher education has an important role to play in preparing teachers with a critical orientation towards dominant gender discourses, and an understanding of the intersection of gender with other discourses, such as culture and ethnicity.     

Transnational geographies of academic distinction: the role of social capital in the recognition and evaluation of ‘overseas’ credentials

This paper examines the role of specific and place‐based social capital in the recognition and evaluation of international credentials. Whilst research on labour market segmentation has contributed towards an understanding of the spatial variability of the value of human capital, very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the credentials of more privileged social groups may in certain local contexts become valorised. At the same time, an increasing body of work in sociology has drawn attention to the globalisation of credentials and labour market competition. This paper brings together these perspectives, demonstrating how transnational social connections are put to work in the valourisation of ‘overseas credentials’ within a particular local labour market – Hong Kong’s financial services sector. It reveals the extent to which social capital, which is at once transnational and locally embedded, confers value upon particular international credentials, with consequences for individuals’ employment prospects. The paper stresses the continuing need to examine international academic credentials in localised contexts.     

‘Dicks are for chicks’: Latino boys,masculinity, and the abjection of homosexuality

Employing social constructivist theories and the concept of abjection from gender studies, this article examines how and why a group of low-income, USA-born Dominican and Puerto Rican middle-school boys constructed masculine identities by invoking and repudiating homosexuality. Ethnographic data from a 2.5-year study indicate that the abjection of homosexuality was a place of performativity wherein the boys utilised their bodies, cultural referents, and bilingualism to delineate masculinity, reiterate heteronormativity, and distance themselves from homosexuals, who they perceived as a threat to their sexuality, personal safety, and physical dominance. At school, the boys enacted a hypermasculine, heteronormative variant of their ethno-racial identities. As a result, their gender construction was heavily influenced by dominant gender practices present in their neighbourhoods and in segments of the broader US, Dominican, and Puerto Rican cultures. Together, these cultural influences shaped the gender regime within the boys' school peer group. This article concludes with a call for additional research examining the intersection of ethno-racial identity, sexuality, gender, and class.     

From ‘academic concern’ to work readiness: student mobility,employability and the devaluation of academic capital on the year abroad

This article suggests that a process of de-academisation is discernible in the way the Erasmus year abroad is promoted, organised, supervised and evaluated. The article argues that rather than being a product of students’ consumerist rationalities, this process is produced within the conditions of the managerialised and under-resourced university. This process is underpinned by institutional discourses and practices that devalue academic capital, in line with the employability agenda and the corporate critique of higher education as outdated and too abstract for the real world. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Ireland, the article uses a Bourdieusian lens to examine the de-academisation of study abroad and the field–habitus clash experienced by participants. Finally, the article draws attention to the implications of this neutralisation of academic capital in a context where academic credentials are increasingly devalued in the labour market.     

Lederberg and the ‘Cellularity’ of bacteria

Joshua Lederberg will surely be remembered for his stellar contributions to microbial genetics and his sage intervention in public affairs concerning exobiology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, and bioterrorism. Not so well know is his emphatic mission to spell out that bacteria are cells and not something else. This brief sketch examines some of his contributions to bacterial cytology. Moselio Schaechter (Elio to friends) spent his career studying growth physiology and cell structure of enteric bacteria. Born in Italy, he spent his youth in Ecuador before going to the United States where he chaired the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston for twenty three years. After retirement he is at San Diego, where he has devoted himself to sharing the excitement of the microbial world, mainly via a blog called “Small Things Considered”. He has authored several influential textbooks and reference works. He succeeded Joshua Lederberg as Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Microbiology. He also authored a book, In the Company of Mushrooms, which deals with his avocation, wild mushrooms.     

Hannah Arendt and the ‘freedom’ to think

ABSTRACT

Dissatisfied with the Western tradition of political philosophy, Arendt maintained a tension between the political, which she associates primarily with the freedom to act, and the philosophical, which she associates principally with the activity of thinking, throughout her works. Whilst Arendt's work is underpinned by a focus on political action, her work on the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy is of significant educational value. Taking a broadly phenomenological approach, and reading Arendt through an educational lens, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy and the perils of ‘non-thinking’ reveal the wider dangers of instrumentalism and the performative models of education that accompanies it. It is suggested here that Arendt's work exposes ‘non-thinking’ as a form of instrumental thinking, which is not only a threat to the development of the capacity for critical thought but also to the development autonomy and the capacity for moral judgement.     

Limitless provocations of the ‘safe’, ‘secure’ and ‘healthy’ child

This paper arose amongst the making and showing of a film and questions whether there are possibilities for interrupting powerful discursive frames that work at producing ‘the normal child’. Traditionally there has been a lack of interest in the use and critique of visual culture in educational research. Perhaps this lack of interest provides fertile opportunities to know something of the structure of education as a discipline, the rules that structure it and its deep grammar; it may also open up opportunities for disciplinary boundary-crossings where fields that embrace visual culture, such as photography and filmmaking, can bring their playfulness across binaries, including notions of certainty/ambivalence, to qualitative research in education. By turning to art theory, our aims are to interfere with our utopian longings that steadfastly cling to educational notions of the child.     

‘An attempt to tip the scales’: music and embodied capital in an English secondary school

This article explores class, capital, and aspiration to social mobility in an ethnographic study of an English secondary school. In particular, the article considers the school’s musical instrument programme as a site for inculcating forms of capital, under the auspices of developing skills for upward social mobility. Bringing together Bourdieu’s conceptions of schooling with theories of materiality and situated learning, we contend that this school succeeds in cultivating new forms of embodied capital among students through the development of communities of musical practice. However, a tension remains between emancipatory aims of the programme and the sanctioning and championing of certain forms of dominant cultural practice. The learning environment of the instrument programme highlights the complex and conflicted impact that schooling can have on the development of cultural capital and on reproducing disadvantage and difference.