What's Wrong with Boys? Addressing the Underachievement Argument

Stuart Baird

Underachievement in boys is held to contain an explanation for a lack of success by boys at school. While based on observable outcomes, exam results and behaviour, the underachievement discussion is little more than an attack on masculine values, such as strength, achievement and independence, in an era when exam success and employability has replaced the drive to create employment. This paper explores the reasons why masculinity is discredited and individual qualifications accepted as the determinant for economic success. Its conclusion holds adults to account for failing to take responsibility for developing opportunities for all children.

Introduction

The attitudes that boys hold towards school and schoolwork has been seen by some as being detrimental to both the education of boys and girls. The success of boys, measured by examination results, has been found to be falling behind that of girls.

Concerns over the underachievement of boys and wider problems associated with masculine behaviour have been recorded through the popular media over the past few years. In 1994 the BBC broadcast of its current affairs program Panorama titled 'The Future is Female' highlighted the importance of the issue within society. In 1996 Hilary Wilce reported in the Independent,

Boys now do less well at every level of GCSE than girls, and less well in English from the age of seven onwards. They are less conscientious about homework, less organised about bringing the right books to class, more likely to get into trouble with their teachers, and four times as likely to get excluded from school. (Wilce, 1996)

More recently Dr Becky Francis of the University of Greenwich was quoted in the Times Educational Supplement as saying,

Boys seem to be saying that they are their own worst enemy and that an immense pressure on them to be macho is interfering with their learning. What we should be doing is not changing learning and teaching materials or teaching styles, but rather the culture of masculinity that belittles learning. (Ghouri, 1999)

What's New?

What is important about the underachievement of boys' discussion is that it has little to do with any actual changes within boys. The behaviour of boys within school and society could be described as having always been problematic. Geoffrey Pearson quotes an educationalist from the Teachers World of December 1918 saying:

A boy's world has its own events and standards and code and gossip and public opinion…The code of the teacher, for instance, is in favour of silence and safety and decorum. The code of the boys is diametrically opposed. It is in favour of noise and risk and excitement. (Pearson, 1983, 44)

The scene for confrontation and struggle in the classroom is set up for another term.

As for academic performance, examination results for both genders has increased over recent years, although at a slower rate for boys. The recent Scottish School Leavers: Gender and Low Achievement report noted,

the proportion of low-attainers at Ordinary or Standard Grade has more than halved since the 1970s. It has declined more amongst women than young men. (Biggart 2000)

The trend over recent years is an improvement for both genders at exams but with that of girls increasing more rapidly than boys.

With no substantive change within boys, the discussion regarding underachievement highlights changes in society and how these changes have altered the way performance at school and behaviour are considered.

Problems

It would be appropriate here to discuss problems within the discussion on the underachievement of boys. While the term 'boy' may be used with sexual specificity its guide as an explanation for educational outcome is tenuous.

Patricia Murphy and Jannette Elwood consider this problem and state that,

There is more overlap between the attainment of boys and girls than there is difference…and, while there are many boys who are not performing well at schools, there are many others who are doing very well indeed. (Epstein, D., Elwood, J.,Hey, V. and Maw, J. (eds.) (1998), 10)

Socio-economic status is taken as a greater guide to educational outcome. Lindsay Paterson (1992) explains the impact of socio-economic status for supporting the education of the child in terms of material resources, such as accommodation and money available for school trips, and cultural resources, such as the level of parental education and opportunities to learn at home. The twin indices of material and cultural resources can be expanded to incorporate the community where the child lives. Jill Duffield (1998) and Sean Demack, David Drew and Mike Grimsley (1998) are among many whom strongly identify socio-economic status as a key determinant of educational outcome. Demack, Drew and Grimsley in their study of GCSE results between 1988 and 1993 found,

The socio-economic differences in attainment were larger than the gender and ethnic differences and these socio-economic differences have changed relatively little over time. Over 70 per cent of the professional group obtained 5+ A-C passes in 1993 compared with 14 per cent of those in the unskilled manual group. (Demack, Drew and Grimsley 1988)

The emotional or behavioural side of being a boy, masculinity, has been given a range of attributes by society. John McInnes notes how these attributes were once seen as positive but today have become problematic,

What were once claimed to be manly virtues (heroism, independence, courage, strength, rationality, will, backbone, virility) have become masculine vices (abuse, destructive aggression, coldness, emotional inarticulacy, detachment). (Furedi 1998)

Personal attributes or emotions are not fixed to one gender or another or only found in one activity or another. Men and women may react differently to situations as a result of different experiences, but this does not lead to exclusivity on attributes or emotions. Rather it highlights the different social conventions through which feelings are expressed. As we are well aware from our social lives there are just as many hard and competitive women as there are supportive and emotional men. As we know from ourselves our feelings and expressions change on a daily basis from, for example ambition at work to warm and loving at home. MacInnes describes masculinity and femininity in the following terms,

Masculinity is not something any man actually possesses, any more than any woman has femininity written on her heart. It exists only as a set of ideas or stereotypes which we carry around to make sense of the different roles and places men and women occupy in society. (MacInnes 1998)

The raising of feminine virtue over masculine vice is not about gender but a set of values that are held up as appropriate for today.

Underachievement is also a problem. A starting question would be underachievement compared to what? For the discussion on underachievement in boys the 'what' is taken to be girls. But as actual achievement is tied more to socio-economic status than gender then we should also consider the underachievement of many girls. Such underachievement could simply be measured in degree passes, which could clearly show the lack of success of those men and women brought up from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.

The underachievement in boys' discussion is problematic. The use of the term boy tells us little of the educational requirements of any individual pupil, the associated masculine values are attached to boys with no attempt to combat simple stereotyping and the achievement that boys should be aspiring to is ill-defined. With these problems noted I will move forward with an explanation of underachievement of boys based on structural changes in the economy, the role given to education and the acceptance of masculine vice and feminine virtue today.

Economic change

The economy is one example of how a set of values, masculine value, has been replaced with another set of values, feminine values. It could be possible to trace the change in values to other areas, such as politics or leisure, but this paper limits itself to what can be considered a key area in the changing value system in Britain today.

The ending of the post-war boom for the economy, especially evident in industrial disputes through the seventies and characterised by the miners strike in the eighties, has seen a pattern of decline in the manufacturing base in Britain and the growth of the service sector. This structural change has brought with it alterations to both working practices and the expectations and attitudes that people have towards work. James Heartfield identifies Britain as one of only three countries within the advanced nations that has actually seen a decline in its industrial workforce, halving to six million workers from 1960 to today. (Heartfield 1998)

Women now make up a greater proportion of the workforce having increased by around 12% since 1971 to about 50% of the workforce today. While the increase in female participation in the workforce has been greatest within part-time work, entry into the professions, such as accountancy, medicine and law are equivalent to males and female graduates compete equally. This split highlights an important division based on class with women coming from the better socio-economic backgrounds getting the better jobs.

De-industrialisation has had its severest effect on working class men who have seen not only their jobs but also their wider links to the community through work disappear. The community and social events built around the workplace have gone along with the identity of belonging to a wider group in society.

The growth of the service sector has not replaced like for like as employment in this sector has a higher chance of being part-time or short-term employment. As employment patterns become irregular personal attachment to work becomes more tenuous.

As these service sector jobs have been traditionally associated with women the change in the workplace has been described in gendered terms with male values loosing out to those of the female. The Daily Express article titled, "Why men must be more like women" exemplifies the discussion of values,

Many new jobs are part-time or short-term while we also move away from skill-based jobs to knowledge based jobs. All these are associated with women so men will have to be more flexible and feminine in their approach to work. Men tend to be more competitive and yet these jobs will rely on teamwork, again qualities associated with women. (Daily Express 13/5/95)

The values issue can be seen in the description that politicians and economists espouse for the new economy, flexibility or openness to change. Of course within the workplace qualities, such as flexibility, are welcomed by management as offering the most malleable workforce. When thought of in these terms flexibility loses its positive appeal.

Government has refined its response to the changing economic structure. Economic policy has been reduced in scale from grand interventions in the economy to almost the single task of monitoring inflation rates. Alongside the withdrawal from economic intervention has been the belief in the globalisation of industry and the fostering of education. The globalisation theory offers government the opportunity to excuse itself for the condition of the economy while pointing at the possibility of an individual solution, education.

The burden for creating new jobs can now be placed on the individual and their education. While the Conservative philosophy of 'on your bike' was considered crass the New Labour project of education as social panacea, or 'on your course', has been widely accepted.

Exam Results

The importance of examinations can be now viewed in its relationship to the changing economy in Britain. Politicians proselytize the necessity to train pupils to compete in the global economy and attribute any future economic success to the educational attainment of the individual. While the tie between education and economy could never be denied, education had been held apart playing a wider social role. Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel identify the importance of qualifications now and how, "individual academic performance has become a prerequisite for economic success" (Furlong and Cartmel 1998, 12).

With success in exams seen as being so important the disparity between boys and girls gains significance. From primary school through secondary school examination results show that girls are gaining better grades than boys are. Information supplied by the HMI audit unit identifies that the attainment measured against the 5-14 Levels in 1998 showed:

at each stage, girls tend to be tested at higher levels than boys and are generally more successful. In reading and writing particularly, boys under-achieve compared to girls.
(Raising Standards - Setting Targets 1999)

Within secondary school the Scottish Office White Paper, 'Targeting Excellence: Modernising Scotland's Schools' explains that:

In 1996-97 64% of girls left school with 5 or more Standard Grade awards at 1-3, or better, compared to 51% of boys. Over a third (34%) of girls left with 3 or more Higher passes, compared to slightly over a quarter (27%) of boys. These results confirm a trend which has been developing for some time…(Scottish Office 1999, 20)

The success of girls within education in recent years can be explained by the removal of institutional barriers to success and the promotion of equal rights for women. Since the mid seventies equal opportunities legislation has been in place to support girls and women, while at the same time there has been a drive to encourage girls to see their contribution to society as being beyond that of the traditional housewife and now through employment. The work to open opportunity works within the framework offered by socio-economic status as explained earlier.

The acceptance of the need for qualifications to succeed in society has altered the role of examinations and with it qualifications. Education today is an important policy area for those involved in social inclusion and ensuring everyone has a qualification is central. The education system has been restructured to absorb those pupils who would have previously left school to seek and gain employment. Today such pupils are given courses to ensure their continued participation, or inclusion, within education. A key aim in such courses is the development of core skills or personal employability.

Developing employability, skills that could be more productively encouraged within the workplace, has become a more visible policy for political parties than the creation of actual jobs.

Successful Girls?

The case for equality between the sexes has been won at the level of ideas. Few people would argue that the role of women should be limited to mother and housewife. Statistics are given for the increased participation for women in the workplace and of course for success in education. Feminine values are also accepted as being preferable to their male equivalents.

Discussing the move towards equality has its problems. Women are still under-represented in the highest positions and women's pay, on average, trails behind that of men. Many women work in the poorest paid sectors of the economy. Janet Powney makes clear that,

Although girls in the UK stay on longer at school than boys and leave with better qualifications, there are fewer girls taking up apprenticeships or obtaining first class degrees. (Powney 1996)

The newly found success of women is partial at best. A small identifiable group can be seen to have overcome the old biases and are now competing more equally with their male counterparts. For many women though success is little more than a part-time job and a second class education.

Feared Boys?

Within the tables of academic success it is working class boys who are considered as achieving the least. It is here that masculine values are falsely held up as having stunted success. Alongside criticism of behaviour there is a fear of boys who leave school without the appropriate attitudes. This fear and the lack of opportunity is captured by Claire Short,

Young males have no role in society…They can't get stable incomes, so they are useless partners or fathers. If your society can't give you a role, or respect, you despise it. Boys of 15 or 16 get into a dropout culture of the streets; they are sullen and rude. It is a very murky world and it leads to getting money illegitimately. (Sunday Times, Give Boys A Break, M Driscoll and D Thomas 2/4/95)

It is an indictment on society that boys can be considered as failures through secondary school and be offered little opportunity elsewhere. Within society today masculine values are castigated and those seen as being in possession of then, most notable working class boys are feared.

Conclusion

A small number of pupils find school a difficult experience and require support, for medical, behavioural or educational reasons. Larger proportions of pupils fail to reach their potential through a lack of opportunity offered by the education system and shortcomings in society as shown by statistics given on socio-economic status.

Qualifications are held to be the way forward. Masculine values are seen as holding boys back. Despite this, middle class pupils regardless of gender still reach higher education and achieve above average incomes compared to their working class counterparts. The underachievement in boys' discussion is unhelpful in locating the cause of disadvantage in boys. Blaming boys solves nothing.

It is adults who have ultimately been underachieving in this discussion and by blaming children, namely boys, try to get themselves off the hook. It is without foundation to accept that education and qualifications are solutions to an economy that cannot offer employment to its citizens.

In addition, the desire to undermine masculine values displays a lack of dynamism within education and society. Without strength and assertiveness, at present discredited masculine values, adults will be unable to improve the position of all our children.

References

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