Gender and Underachievement: A question of which boys and which girls?

1
Gender and Underachievement A question of which
boys and which girls?

• Dr Wayne Martino Dr Goli Rezai-Rashti
• Faculty of Education
• The University of Western Ontario

2
Sources

• AAUW (American Association of University Women)
  (2008) Where the girls are The facts about
  gender equity in education. Washington, DC.
• http//www.aauw.org/research/whereGirlsAre.cfm
• TDSB Research Report (2006) Grade 9 Cohort Study
  2000-2005, Toronto.
• http//www.tdsb.on.ca/wwwdocuments/about_us/exter
  nal_research_application/docs/grade9cohort2000-200
  5execsum.pdf
• Mead, S. (2006) The truth about boys and girls.
  Washington, DC Education Sector.
• http//www.educationsector.org/research/research_
  show.htm?doc_id378705
• Quebec Ministry of Education Report (2004) Boys
  Academic Achievement Putting the findings into
  perspective.
• http//www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/Stat/recherche/Reussite
  _garcons_ang.pdf
• Martino, W. Rezai-Rashti, G. (2006-2009)
  Investigating the influence of male elementary
  school teachers as role models in elementary
  schools. SSHRC funded Project 410-2006-1158.

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Introduction Beyond a Distorted View of the
Achievement Gap

• More informed understanding of boys
  underachievement than that which has been
  presented in the popular media and by policy
  makers which groups of boys and which groups of
  girls are most at risk?
• The so-called boy crisis also feeds on a lack of
  solid information. Although there are a host of
  statistics about how boys and girls perform in
  school, we actually know very little about why
  these differences exist or how important they
  are (Mead, 2006, p. 14).
• There are many things-including biological,
  developmental, cultural, and educational factors
  - that affect how boys and girls do in school.
  But untangling these different influences is
  incredibly difficult (Mead, 2006, p. 14).
• The lack of solid research evidence confirming
  or debunking any particular hypothesis has
  created fertile ground for all sorts of people to
  seize on the boy crisis to draw attention to
  their pet educational, cultural or ideological
  issues (Mead, 2006, p. 14).
• There is a need to disaggregate data in terms of
  multiple and intersecting characteristics such as
  gender, class, race, sexuality, ethnicity and
  geographical location as opposed to seeing boy as
  a homogenous group.

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Knowledge about which boys and which girls are
underachieving

• AAUW 2008 Report Where the girls are
• Data disaggregated by gender, race/ethnicity, and
  family income are not widely available.
• Gender differences in educational achievement
  vary by race/ethnicity and family income level as
  well and cannot be fully understood without
  attention to race/ethnicity and family income
  level (p. 11)
• Race/Income gap in achievement is greater than
  the gender gap On standardized test such as the
  NAEP, SAT, and ACT, children from the
  lowest-income families have the lowest average
  test scores, with an incremental rise in family
  income associated with a rise in test scores.
  Race/ethnicity is also strongly associated with
  test score, with African American and Hispanic
  children scoring lower on average than white and
  Asian American children (p. 10).

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• TDSB Research Report
• The TDSB has tracked Toronto high school students
  through Ontarios new four year curriculum
  according to race/ethnicity and family income of
  its student population.
• Those students identified as being m are most at
  risk of dropping out of school are those born in
  English-speaking Caribbean, Central and South
  America/Mexico, and Eastern Africa.
• Specifically those students speaking Portuguese,
  Spanish and Somali are at high risk of dropping
  out.
• These groups of students are more likely to fail
  the Grade 10 Literacy Test, not middle-class
  boys.
• At risk status was strongly related to family
  income. By the end of high school students in the
  lowest income grouping had a dropout rate of 33
  per cent compared to 11 percent for students in
  the highest income grouping

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• Mead, S. (2006) The truth about boys and girls.
• Theres no doubt that some groups of boys
  particularly Hispanic and black boys from
  low-income homes are in real trouble. But the
  predominant issues for them are race and class,
  not gender. Closing racial and economic gaps
  would help poor and minority boys more than
  closing gender gaps, and focusing on gender gaps
  may distract attention from bigger problems
  facing these youngsters (p. 3).
• Educators, parents, and policymakers should
  therefore be sceptical of simplistic proposals
  aimed at fixing the boy crisis, such as expanding
  single-sex schooling, implementing gender-based
  instructional techniques, or funding new federal
  programs aimed at improving boys achievement.
  The close relation between the difficulties
  facing some boys and complex educational
  challenges such as racial and economic and
  economic achievement gaps, high school reform,
  and special education suggests that silver-bullet
  approaches are unlikely to solve the problems
  facing many boys. Each of these ideas may have a
  modicum of merit, but there is little sound
  research or evidence for their effectiveness (pp.
  18-19).

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• Quebec Ministry of Education Report (2004)
• Important to avoid generalizations most boys do
  well in school
• Boys are not a homogeneous group environment has
  major influence
• Strong correlation between adhering to sexual
  stereotypes and school failure
• In some school boards and in some schools the
  gender gap is very narrow or negligible.
• Conclusions drawn are consistent with statistical
  findings reported by AAUW and TDSB regarding
  achievement gaps along race/ethnicity and social
  class lines.

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The need for both Qualitative research and
analytic frameworks

• Statistical analysis needs to be informed by both
  qualitative research and analytic frameworks that
  are capable of addressing the complex
  interconnections among characteristics such as
  gender, race, ethnicity sexuality, social class
  and their cumulative effect for targeted
  populations.
• The research base is internally contradictory,
  making it easy to find superficial support for a
  wide variety of explanations but difficult for
  the media and the public to evaluate the quality
  of evidence cited - or the right kind of evidence
  available to draw firm conclusions. As a
  result, there is a sort of free market for
  theories about why boys are underperforming girls
  in schools, with parents, educators, media, and
  the public choosing to give credence to
  explanations that are best marketed and that most
  appeal to their pre-existing preferences (Mead,
  2006, p. 14)
• Alloway et al (2002) argue that the ways in which
  boys engage with literacy, for example, is often
  determined by how they learn to relate to others
  and understand themselves which, in turn, is
  influenced by questions of culture and identity
  that cannot be reduced to biological sex
  differences.

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Brain-Sex Research

• Brain sex research and theories about biological
  differences between boys and girls have been used
  to support unwarranted generalizations and gross
  oversimplification.
• Common-sense and taken-for-granted notions
  about differences between boys and girls are
  explained as biological givens without any
  attempt to engage with the fact that there are
  differences amongst boys as a group and that
  these differences cannot be accounted for
  adequately in terms of their sexed bodies.
• Gilbert Gilbert (1998) Brain research does
  point to differences in features like brain size
  and structure in male and female brains, though
  it s conflicting and based on surprisingly small
  samples. There is also evidence that when men and
  women complete particular tasks, there are sex
  differences in the area of the brain involved.
  However, some quite large studies have found no
  significant sex differences in size, and some
  parts of the brain are larger in men and some
  larger in women. Some early claims about sex
  differences in brain structures have not been
  confirmed by later research. Further, it is
  misleading to refer to the brain as being
  connected in a particular way, as if brains
  operate in a similar manner to hardwired
  electronic devices. This denies the flexibility
  and interactiveness of the brain revealed for
  instance in the fact that particular functions
  can involve different parts of the brain at
  different times (p 38).

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• Younger ands Warrington (2005) claim that
  uncritical and unreflective approaches to
  implementing a more boy-friendly curriculum have
  been grounded in theoretical perspectives which
  adhere to brain-sex differences in schools. This
  has been accompanied by a consultancy industry in
  boys education, they add, which promotes support
  for brain-based learning initiatives which stress
  the need to cater for boys distinctive learning
  styles, despite the limited evidence base (p
  75).
• It is notoriously difficult to draw causal links
  between observations about brain structure or
  activity and human behavior, appoint that
  scientists often take great pains to emphasize.
  Just as correlation does not always signify
  causation in social science research,
  correlations between differences in brain
  structure and observed differences in male and
  female behavior do not necessarily mean that the
  former leads to the other. (Mead, 2006, p 15)

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Does the gender of the teacher matter?

• There is a common sense belief that male teachers
  will make a difference for boys learning in
  schools.
• Based on interviews with over 70 teachers,
  classroom observations of twenty teachers and
  interviews/informal discussions with students, we
  found that a teachers gender did not appear to
  have any direct influence on students evaluation
  of teacher effectiveness. Teacher quality and
  effectiveness cannot be explained by the gender
  of the teacher.
• Teacher quality and effectiveness is described by
  students in terms of the following an ability to
  relate to students in a warm, friendly manner,
  while being able to set firm boundaries for
  classroom learning and interaction enthusiasm
  for subject matter and an ability to explain
  material and to present the curriculum in an
  interesting way though problem solving and
  engaging activities the ability to relate the
  curriculum to the everyday lives and experiences
  of students.
• Some evidence was found for positive effects for
  a teachers ethnic/racial affiliation with
  minority students. This, however, seemed to be
  more related to a question of representation
  given the nature of minority populations in inner
  city schools in a urban city like Toronto

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Conclusion

• A more informed approach to addressing the gender
  gap means disaggregating and disseminating
  performance data by gender, race/ethnicity, and
  family income.
• A more informed approach to implementation of
  gender reform strategies for addressing boys
  underachievement
• There are more differences from one boy to the
  next of from one girl to the next than there are
  differences between groups of boys and groups of
  girls. Thus seemingly innate gender-based
  characteristics cannot be attributed to an
  essentially heterogeneous group in asking
  questions and seeking solutions, we must not
  resort to improvised strategies based on
  anecdotal evidence, or hastily adopt radical
  solutions, but instead relay on controlled
  experiments and initiatives in the spirit of
  sound research (Quebec Ministry of Education
  report, 2004, p 16).
• Some understanding of how the social construction
  of masculinities intersects with other
  characteristics such as race, ethnicity,
  sexuality and social class to influence boys
  achievement and engagement with schooling.
• There are several things parents, educators, and
  policymakers could and should do. The first is
  not to panic. Boys educational achievement is
  improving overall, some gender gaps are less
  significant than press reports make them out to
  be, and many boys are doing fine despite the
  averages (p. 18).