Component 1 Section C (Education): gender differences in achievement (the changing position of girls and boys, and subject choice) and ethnic differences in achievement, including external and internal explanations and the experience of different ethnic groups in school.

What this dot point is asking

This statement covers gender and ethnic differences in achievement: why girls now outperform boys, the persistence of gendered subject choice, and the external and internal explanations of ethnic differences and the experience of ethnic groups in school. The recurring skill is using external (home, society) and internal (school) factors, and being cautious about explanations that risk stereotyping.

The answer

Gender: why girls now outperform boys

Girls now outperform boys at most levels, reversing the historic pattern. The reasons divide into the rise of girls and the relative decline of boys:

• External (girls): feminism and changing ambitions (Sharpe's research found girls shifted from prioritising marriage and family to careers and independence), more job opportunities for women, and changes in family and women's employment raised girls' motivation.
• External (boys): the decline of traditional male manual jobs (sometimes called a crisis of masculinity) has, some argue, reduced the incentive for boys to achieve, while laddish anti-school subcultures equate effort with being uncool.
• Internal: girls may benefit from coursework, more positive teacher attention, and the feminisation of teaching; boys' weaker literacy is also significant.

Subject choice remains gendered: girls are over-represented in the humanities, languages and caring subjects and boys in sciences, maths and technology. This reflects gender role socialisation, gender domains (what each sex sees as their territory), gendered subject images and peer pressure, rather than ability.

Ethnicity: external and internal explanations

Achievement and experience also vary by ethnicity, with different patterns for different groups. Explanations again split:

• External factors: material deprivation (some minority ethnic groups face higher rates of poverty) and cultural factors (family structure, parental attitudes, language if English is an additional language). These explanations are contested and risk stereotyping whole groups, and class often underlies them.
• Internal factors: labelling and teacher racism (low expectations of some groups), an ethnocentric curriculum (one that prioritises white, Western culture), and pupil responses. Sewell studied the labelling of black boys and their varied responses, while Gillborn and Youdell described an "educational triage" in which schools sort pupils and can disadvantage certain ethnic groups.

A crucial point is that class frequently underlies apparent ethnic differences, so the two cannot be separated cleanly.

Handling the explanations carefully

Both gender and ethnic explanations require caution: blanket claims about a group's culture risk stereotyping and blaming the victim. The strongest answers show external disadvantage and internal school processes interacting, and recognise that class cuts across both gender and ethnicity.

Examples in context

A strong answer separates external from internal factors for both gender and ethnicity, names studies (Sharpe, Sewell, Gillborn and Youdell), and avoids stereotyping by stressing that class cuts across both.

Try this

Q1. Explain what is meant by 'gender domains' in subject choice. [6 marks]

• What the marker wants. A definition (AO1): gender domains are the areas of activity and knowledge that boys and girls come to see as their "territory" through socialisation, shaping subject choice (for example science seen as masculine, caring subjects as feminine), with an example.

Q2. Analyse two reasons why girls now achieve more highly than boys. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points chosen from changing female ambitions and feminism (Sharpe), more job opportunities for women, the decline of traditional male jobs and laddish subcultures, and the suitability of coursework, each explained and linked to the reversal of the gender gap.