Research Report Addressing the Educational Needs of Boys

Achieving gender equality in and through education is central to meeting the targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While the emphasis tends to be on the effects of gender norms on girls, this paper puts the spotlight on the less recognized effects of these norms on boys' schooling, particularly at the secondary level and amongst those from the poorest families. It argues that addressing boys' disadvantage and disengagement in education is an essential part of a response to the challenge of gender inequality, in education and beyond.

Oxford Review of Education, 2005

This paper explores the policy of single-sex classes that is currently being adopted in some schools as a strategy for addressing boys' educational and social needs. It draws on research in one Australian government, coeducational primary school to examine teachers' and students' experiences of this strategy. Interviews with the principal, male and female teachers responsible for teaching the single-sex classes and the students involved in these classes are used to illustrate the impact and effect of the strategy on pedagogical practices in this particular school. The data are used to raise critical questions about the impact and effects of teachers' pedagogical practices in light of the current literature and research about single-sex classes. In this case study, it was found that teachers had a tendency to modify their pedagogical practices and the curriculum to suit stereotypical constructions about boys' and girls' supposed oppositional orientations to learning. It is concluded that teacher knowledges and assumptions about gender play an important role in the execution of their pedagogies in the single-sex classroom.

Gender equity efforts in school tend to focus on reversing or mitigating past injury resulting from unfair or harmful practices. Much of the popular discussion about gender practices and policies in education posits that boys have suffered from the overcompensation of attention on girls' achievement and well-being in the last couple of decades . In more nuanced debates, the tensions tend to be about which groups of girls and boys are most in crisis and in need of saving. For example, a recent AAUW report contends that

Pedagogy, culture and society, 2005

In enhancing the social and academic outcomes of boys, positive teacher-student relationships and quality pedagogy that is informed by key research-based understandings and knowledges about gender are positioned as central. The managerial rather than pedagogical focus currently characterizing Queensland (Australia) schools, where the acquisition of basic skills are seen as more important than students" intellectual engagement, can be seen as constraining boys" academic and social development. In examining what might constitute "best practice" in boys" education, this paper draws on significant socio-cultural research in the area of gender, masculinity and schooling to define the key understandings and knowledges seen as necessary for teachers to effectively construct and apply contextually driven pedagogic strategies to improve educational and social outcomes. The Productive Pedagogies framework of quality 2 teaching and learning (The State of Queensland, 2001) is presented as potentially generative in this regard. This framework is presented here as a way forward for teachers in moving beyond the "common sense" and prescriptive approaches that continue to drive much of the curriculum and pedagogy in our schools and more specifically many of the programs designed to address the educational needs of boys. In drawing on understandings of gender inequities as a product of social practice, the paper illuminates how teachers can adopt the Productive Pedagogies framework in connecting with boys in intellectually engaging ways to explore their understandings of gender and masculinity and broaden their appreciation of difference and diversity.

Academia Letters, 2021

What takes place in the classroom largely determines the extent to which the desired learning outcomes are attained. The systematic observation, analysis, and understanding of classroom aims and events then become fundamental to insightful educational research such as the male learners' academic underachievement. For a researcher to understand communication in a classroom, considering classroom processes and learning outcomes as reliable means of measuring classroom conversation and interaction is required. A commonly used strategy is conversation analysis that can shed light on how teacher talk reflects the act of teaching, how teachers and students organize their talk, and what kind of interaction brings about various affordances for language learning. Employing such a method allows researchers to gain a profound understanding of the connection between relative 'dialogicality' of lessons and student achievement, as well as the extent to which novel instructional policies have adapted or entirely altered classroom interactional patterns. Teaching English as a second/foreign language for more than a decade to high school boys and girls has given me numerous eye-witness accounts to dwell upon the phenomenon of gender gap in academic performance, how teachers perceive male learners' attitude, and whether such an attitude has an impact on the teaching practices. A sociocultural stance is seen to be more convenient in addressing the early mentioned phenomenon as classroom conversations are affected by social factors that extend beyond language classrooms including curriculum, educational policy, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and gender norms. Questions to Ask What factors contribute to the current gender gap in education between school boys and girls in the UAE? How do teachers perceive boys' attitudes to learning? What is the impact of the

Academic research, educational policy and media coverage has highlighted the underachievement of boys in the education system, in particular those from low socio-economic backgrounds. Working class boys are continuously linked with educational failure and criminality. These negative images tend to reinforce stereotypes which affect the expectations of teachers, parents and the boys themselves. However, very little attention is paid to those working class boys who manage to overcome social barriers to achieve academic success. This research study focuses on this cohort of working class males who are achieving, to establish the factors which contributed to their success and encouraged them to progress to Higher Education. Drawing on data from twenty four male undergraduates from two universities, this study concentrates on the key factors which impact educational success including: parental support, schooling, individuals’ attitude, and role models and mentors. Using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital as a framework, it is suggested that the more cultural capital the students possess, the more likely the boys are to succeed. Those students who are nurtured in the home and school environment are equipped to perform well academically. They feel comfortable in the classroom and are able to find a successful balance between maintaining their masculine status and focusing on their academic studies.

Accountability in education is often effected through mandated standards for curriculum, teacher performance and student outcomes at national or state levels, and this has increasingly occurred in Australia over the past decade. In order to make decisions regarding the achievement of these standards, evidence must be collected from sample sites or segments of the relevant populations. Funding is often linked to accountability, through reward mechanisms 'after the event' or through grants made a priori and requiring comprehensive reports. The evidence base is large-scale, but can lack detail. In conjunction with these levers for schools to act on current issues, their autonomy to make local decisions that assist them to meet the standards has been promoted, as policy makers recognise that local input not only increases the motivation of teachers, but allows them to contribute their contextual expertise to solve big problems. Since these problems generally focus on students' needs, teachers have the local authority to take immediate action, while providing evidence of their experience to inform policymakers and other practitioners.

This article calls attention to the social and educational challenges facing boys and men around the world. Next, it highlights how the outcomes for males of African descent across the Americas, in particular the USA, are especially troubling. Moreover, a critique is presented about the recruitment campaigns that see increasing the number of Black male teachers as an elixir for improving the crisis facing Black boys. Then, the article focuses on the intersection of race and gender and reframes the discussion around improving the deleterious school outcomes facing Black boys by shifting the conversation to exploring how educators' socialised views around gender influence the ways in which they teach boys. Finally, the article provides practical applications for designing a curriculum that is gender relevant.

Randwick International of Education and Linguistics Science Journal

The study examined if schooling experience and teacher’s classroom interaction is the same for senior secondary school adolescent girls and boys in Jigawa state, Nigeria. It also determined whether influence of students’ perceived level of personalisation of the teacher’s classroom behaviour and environment exist on their participation in the classroom learning activities. These were with a view to improving the teacher-student’s relationships and teacher’s classroom effectiveness. The study adopted a survey design. The population consisted of all male and female students in public Senior Secondary Schools in Jigawa state. The sample consisted of 370 Senior Secondary Classes Three (SS III) students. Of this number, 185 were boys and 185 were girls selected through stratified sampling procedure using sex as stratum. Their average age was 15.17 years. A self-developed instrument was used to collect relevant data in the study. Data collected were analysed using Independent t-test stati...

Recent research on the differential attainment of boys and girls at school has produced ndings in signi cant contrast to the standard account on which most previous explanations of the differences between boys and girls were based. Put simply, much previous research may have been attempting to explain differences whose nature was incompletely understood. The result, if these new ndings are accepted, is that further research is now necessary to discover the potential socio-economic, classroom and individual determinants of these gender gaps. In addition, it is important before such research takes place that the nature of the actual differences between the 'performance' of boys and girls is more clearly understood. This article is intended to be a part of that advance. It details differential attainment by gender for all students in Wales over 6 years and at every level of assessment from Key Stage 1 to A level. There are few signi cant gender differences in mathematics and the sciences (i.e. the majority of the core subjects). For all other subjects, there are no signi cant gender differences at the lowest level of any assessment. Otherwise, the gap in attainment between boys and girls rises with every grade or level in an assessment, leading to the conclusion that the problem, if indeed it is a problem, is one mainly facing mid-to high-attainers. Proportionately more girls are attaining high grades and more boys are attaining middle grades than might be expected. Trends over time reveal no great change in this picture at the subject level over 6 years, but in terms of aggregate scores such as government benchmarks, the gap between boys and girls is decreasing.

2006

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Foreword PART I: CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS 1. Introduction and Background The Issue Gender Equality in Education and Boys' Underachievement How the Report is Structured 2. What the Existing Literature Says Common Theories and Practical Analyses Gender Identity: Debating Masculinity The Interaction of Socio-Economic Factors and Gender Boys' Underachievement in the Wider Gender Equity Context 3. Varying Dimensions and Lessons Emerging from Selected Commonwealth Countries Social and Economic Background of the Countries The Issue: Commonalities and Divergences What Explains These Trends? The Initiatives How to Address the Issue: Lessons and Questions from the Initiatives The Need for Further Research and its Nature Conclusion PART II: THE CASE STUDIES 4. Australia: Socialisation and Socio-Economics What Does PISA Indicate? A Government Primary School in Queensland Conclusions 5. Jamaica: Alienation and High Drop-out Rates Defining the Problem Situ...

2008

Schools are social environments and as such are concerned with the social-emotional (ie. affective) responses of students. Affective outcomes of schooling are important as they contribute positively to academic outcomes and they are equally important in and of themselves. Affective responses can be assessed quantitatively and are frequently studied as part of school and classroom environments. Within such studies students’ perceptions of school and classroom variables such as general satisfaction with school, relationships with teachers and peers, feelings of achievement and motivation and engagement are measured. These are also areas of schooling with particular relevance for boys’ education, as boys are frequently reported as less satisfied with school and less engaged and motivated in learning. Many qualitative studies have reported boys’ low levels of satisfaction with school compared to girls and subsequent lack of motivation and engagement. Yet few quantitative studies compari...

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2019

The PIDS Discussion Paper Series constitutes studies that are preliminary and subject to further revisions. They are being circulated in a limited number of copies only for purposes of soliciting comments and suggestions for further refinements. The studies under the Series are unedited and unreviewed. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute. Not for quotation without permission from the author(s) and the Institute.