Becky Francis
Biographic Data
| ID | 3701124 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Becky Francis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Becky |
| FAMILY NAME | Francis |
| SIGNATURE | FRANCIS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Roehampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9966-0003 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 72 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 666 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 72 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
More is more: Exploring the relationship between young people’s experiences of school-based career education, information, advice and guidance at age 14–16 and wider adult outcomes at age 21–22 in Eng…
Does school-based careers education, advice, information and guidance (CEAIG) have any influence on later life outcomes? This paper reports regression analyses using 7,635 survey responses from young people in England aged 21–22. Significant positive relationships were found between self-reported CEAIG activities experienced at age 14–16 and a range of adult outcomes reported at age 21–22. Both the quantity and quality of these CEAIG activities w…
An exploration of the impact of science stratification in the English school curriculum: The relationship between ‘Double’ and ‘Triple’ Science pathways and pupils’ further study of science
Supply of students to ‘the science pipeline’ remains an important imperative for economic policy, and for individual life chances. In England, Science courses from age 14–16 have been divided into ‘Double’ and (extended) ‘Triple’ Science. This article draws on data from 6,053 students to investigate the effects of science course designation on progress to further science study and qualifications, as well as exploring the representation of student…
The What Works Centres: Lessons and Insights from an Evidence Movement
Leaders, researchers and practitioners from the UK 'What Works Network' share their insights on the successes, failures, and future of the What Works Centres, which have proven successful and popular across a number of policy settings.
Reasons for not/choosing chemistry: Why advanced level chemistry students in England do/not pursue chemistry undergraduate degrees
There are international concerns about decreasing rates of chemistry degree enrolment. This article seeks to understand students' reasons for not/choosing to pursue a chemistry degree, drawing on (i) open‐ended survey responses from a sample of 506 students in England aged 21–22 who had studied advanced level (“A level”) chemistry at age 18 (as either a full A level or a half “AS” level) and had either chosen ( n = 70) or not chosen ( n = 436) to…
Get lucky? Luck and educational mobility in working-class young people’s lives from age 10–21
Scant sociological attention has been given to the role of luck within social mobility/reproduction. This paper helps address this conceptual gap, drawing on insights from over 200 longitudinal interviews conducted with 20 working-class young people and 22 of their parents over an 11-year period, from age 10–21. We explore the potential significance of luck within the trajectories of 13 educationally mobile young people who were the first in fami…
The achievement gap: The impact of between‐class attainment grouping on pupil attainment and educational equity over time
Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between‐class attainment groups (‘setting’) in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top…
The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time: Demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy
The impact of self-fulfilling prophecy in education, and of attainment grouping on pupil self-perception, remain topics of longstanding debate, with important consequences for social in/justice. Focusing on self-confidence, this article draws on survey responses from 9,059 12-13 year olds who were tracked by subject (‘setting’). They provided survey responses when placed in ‘ability’ sets at the start of their secondary schooling, and again late …
Reassessing ‘Ability’ Grouping: Improving Practice for Equity and Attainment
Presenting original quantitative and qualitative data from a large-scale empirical research project conducted in British secondary schools, Reassessing ‘Ability’ Grouping analyses the impact of attainment grouping on pupil outcomes, teacher effectiveness and social equality. Alongside a comprehensive account of existing literature and the international field, this book offers: Rigorous conceptual analysis of data A view of wider political debates…
Learners’ attitudes to mixed-attainment grouping: Examining the views of students of high, middle and low attainment
There is a substantial international literature around the impact of different types of grouping by attainment on the academic and personal outcomes of students. This literature, however, is sparse in student voices, especially in relation to mixed-attainment practices. Research has indicated that students of different attainment levels might have different experiences and views of grouping structures. This paper represents a significant contribu…
The misallocation of students to academic sets in maths: A study of secondary schools in England
Drawing upon data gathered from 9301 Year 7 students (12–13 years old) from 46 secondary schools in England, this study represents the first larger‐scale attempt to compare their actual set allocations in maths with the counterfactual position where their allocation to sets is based solely on their prior attainment at the end of primary school [using their Key Stage 2 (KS2) fine‐grained scores in maths]. Through such an analysis, the study found …
Why is it difficult for schools to establish equitable practices in allocating students to attainment ‘sets’
Research has consistently shown ‘ability’ grouping (tracking) to be prey to poor practice, and to perpetuate inequity. A feature of these problems is inequitable and inaccurate practice in allocation to groups or ‘tracks’. Yet little research has examined whether such practices might be improved. Here, we examine survey and interview findings from a large-scale intervention study of grouping practices in 126 English secondary schools. We find tha…
Teacher ‘quality’ and attainment grouping: The role of within-school teacher deployment in social and educational inequality
The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting
‘Setting’ is a widespread practice in the UK , despite little evidence of its efficacy and substantial evidence of its detrimental impact on those allocated to the lowest sets. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, we propose that setting can be understood as a practice through which the social and cultural reproduction of dominant power relations is enacted within schools. Drawing on survey data from 12,178 Year 7 (age 11/12) students and discussion g…
Female Masculinity
The concept of “female masculinity,” first applied by Judith Halberstam, is elaborated. The theoretical rationale for its application, and the strengths and limitations of the concept, are briefly explained. The concept's main contribution is a decentering of the body in productions of gender.
Exploring the relative lack of impact of research on ‘ability grouping’ in England: A discourse analytic account
Grouping students by ‘ability’ is a topic of long-standing contention in English education policy, research and practice. While policy-makers have frequently advocated the practice as reflecting educational ‘standards’, research has consistently failed to find significant benefits of ‘ability’ grouping; and indeed has identified disadvantages for some (low-attaining) pupil groups. However, this research evidence has apparently failed to impact on…
Towards social justice in education: Contradictions and dilemmas
The article builds on prior arguments that research on issues of social justice in education has often lacked constructive engagement with education policy-making, and that this can be partly attributed to a lack of clarity about what a socially just education system might look like. Extending this analysis, this article argues that this lack of clarity is perpetuated by a series of contradictions and dilemmas underpinning ‘progressive’ debate in…
Stratifying science: A Bourdieusian analysis of student views and experiences of school selective practices in relation to ‘Triple Science’ at KS4 in England
Currently, science in England is distinctive at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in comparison to most other subjects, in that there is a notable stratification of award routes. The most prestigious of these, ‘Triple Science’ (the route for entry for three separate science GCSEs), is championed by English government and industry, but has received scant critical academic attention to date. Drawing on data collected via a national …
Femininity, science, and the denigration of the girly girl
Hyper-femininity and the construction of the ‘girly girl’ label have been documented widely, but there has been less attention to their content (or any distinctions between these constructs). Indeed, it can be argued that the content of femininity remains a controversial and somewhat under-researched topic in feminist scholarship. This is also the case in relation to science, which has been widely characterised as a masculine terrain, but there h…
The “Exceptional” Physics Girl: A Sociological Analysis of Multimethod Data From Young Women Aged 10–16 to Explore Gendered Patterns of Post-16 Participation
Female underrepresentation in postcompulsory physics is an ongoing issue for science education research, policy, and practice. In this article, we apply Bourdieusian and Butlerian conceptual lenses to qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study of students’ science and career aspirations age 10–16. Drawing on survey data from more than 13,000 year 11 (age 15/16) students and interviews with 70 students (who h…
The construction of British Chinese educational success: Exploring the Shifting Discourses in Educational Debate, and Their Effects
The high achievement of British Chinese students in the British education system is established in the official literature and has recently been subject to increased attention and comment; albeit it remains the case that few studies have asked students or their families about the factors contributing to their success. This paper revisits findings from an earlier research project that investigated the extent to which British Chinese students and t…
The Construction of Physics as a Quintessentially Masculine Subject: Young People’s Perceptions of Gender Issues in Access to Physics
The present article investigates explanations for gendered trends in Physics and Engineering access, reporting findings from a large-scale study funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and drawing primarily on data from interviews with 132 15-16 year-old adolescents and their parents. Survey results in our study and elsewhere show strong gender disparities in anticipated pursuit of Physics after completion of compulsory education. I…
The problem of gender categorisation: Addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research
Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to addres…
Impacting policy discourse? An analysis of discourses and rhetorical devices deployed in the case of the Academies Commission
Academisation of the English secondary school system has been extremely rapid and represents significant changes to the governance of the English school system. However, there has been a relative scarcity of attention to the rationales, rhetorics and discourses underpinning the academies programme. Seeking to address this gap, a poststructuralist discourse analytic lens is applied to 63 written submissions to the Academies Commission from a range…
Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System
Rising tuition fees in England have been accompanied by a policy mandate for universities to widen participation by attracting students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This article focuses on one such group of high achieving students and their responses to rising tuition fees within the context of their participation in an outreach scheme at a research-intensive university in the UK. Our findings suggest that rather than being …
The submergence and re-emergence of gender in undergraduate accounts of university experience
Gender distinction has been shown to characterise both undergraduate experiences and outcomes. Yet research recounted in this article supports work that shows that young people are often unaware of such trends, subscribing instead to individualist perspectives that foreground equality of opportunity and agency. This article examines the gender continuities and divergences in 64 undergraduate students' accounts of their experiences, and constructi…
Lads, Lasses and (New) Labour: 14-16-Year-Old Students' Responses to the 'Laddish Behaviour and Boys' Underachievement' Debate
The responses of secondary-school students to the claims of ex-Education Minister Stephen Byers concerning 'laddish behaviour' on the part of boys are examined. The data is drawn from an ESRC-funded study of 14-16-year-old students' constructions of gender, learning, and future educational and occupational pathways. The extent to which boys' classroom behaviour was constructed as 'laddish' by students is discussed, and the discourses pervading th…
Re/theorising gender: Female masculinity and male femininity in the classroom
Recent gender theorising has been enlivened by post‐structuralist accounts of gender as ‘disembodied’; the reading of gender performances as distinct from sexed bodies. However, there has been little application of such theoretical positions to empirical analysis in gender and education. This article employs two such positions – that of ‘female masculinity and male femininity’, and that of ‘gender monoglossia and heteroglossia’ – to data raised f…
Teaching manfully? Exploring gendered subjectivities and power via analysis of men teachers’ gender performance
The notion that teachers’ classroom behaviour and interaction with pupils may be predicted on the basis of their gender underpins recent controversial campaigns to recruit more male teachers in the UK. Teachers’ performances of gender are explored in this article, which draws on three cases from a larger study to analyse the ways in which teachers ascribed male produced their gendered subjectivities in the classroom and in interviews. Findings hi…
Challenging Classes: Exploring the Role of Social Class within the Identities and Achievement of British Chinese Pupils
British Chinese identities remain under-theorized within sociology and the sociology of education - and yet they offer a potentially interesting angle to debates around the (re)production of privileges/inequalities given the growing phenomenon of Chinese educational 'success'. British Chinese pupils' educational success is especially interesting given the 'working-class' positionings of many Chinese families in Britain. In this article we explore…
British—Chinese pupils' and parents' constructions of the value of education
The high achievement of British—Chinese pupils in the British education system is established in the official literature, but few studies have asked British—Chinese pupils or parents about the factors contributing to their success. This paper explores value of education as a possible contributory aspect. It investigates the extent to which British—Chinese pupils and their parents value education, and the rationale behind their constructions in th…
They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: Teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning
This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Considerat…
The problem of gender categorisation: Addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research
Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to addres…
Parents’ and teachers’ constructions of the purposes of Chinese complementary schooling: ‘Culture’, Identity and Power
User perceptions and experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are important in providing understanding concerning complementary schools and their impact on educational and social identities. This paper explores the constructions of parents of pupils attending these schools, and of teachers at these schools, regarding the purposes and benefits of Chinese complementary schools. Data is drawn from an …
Language as capital, or language as identity? Chinese complementary school pupils' perspectives on the purposes and benefits of complementary schools
Pupils' experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are highly important in terms of understanding complementary schools and their impact on pupils' educational and social identities. This article explores British‐Chinese pupils' discursive constructions of the purposes and benefits of Chinese complementary schools, drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)‐funded study of si…
Heroes or zeroes? The discursive positioning of ‘underachieving boys’ in English neo‐liberal education policy
boys ’ in English neo-liberal education policy Abstract: The moral panic concerning ‘boys ’ underachievement ’ is well established in the UK and Australia, and is spreading to other countries. Feminists have articulated concerns that this debate has reflected a ‘poor boys ’ discourse with negative permutations for girls ’ schooling; and there is much evidence to support this claim. However, it is argued here that as a result of the location of un…
Modernist Reductionism or Post-structuralist Relativism: Can we move on? An Evaluation of the Arguments in Relation to Feminist Educational Research
Debate abounds concerning the extent to which post-structuralist theory can be usefully applied to feminist research. This article attempts to draw together and outline the main arguments, and to establish a position which might be built from in the future. The reasons why many feminist educational researchers have been attracted to post-structuralist theory are explored, as are the criticisms of post-structuralism as an inadequate, even androcen…
The misallocation of students to academic sets in maths: A study of secondary schools in England
Drawing upon data gathered from 9301 Year 7 students (12–13 years old) from 46 secondary schools in England, this study represents the first larger‐scale attempt to compare their actual set allocations in maths with the counterfactual position where their allocation to sets is based solely on their prior attainment at the end of primary school [using their Key Stage 2 (KS2) fine‐grained scores in maths]. Through such an analysis, the study found …
The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting
‘Setting’ is a widespread practice in the UK , despite little evidence of its efficacy and substantial evidence of its detrimental impact on those allocated to the lowest sets. Taking a Bourdieusian approach, we propose that setting can be understood as a practice through which the social and cultural reproduction of dominant power relations is enacted within schools. Drawing on survey data from 12,178 Year 7 (age 11/12) students and discussion g…
Successful Boys and Literacy: Are “Literate Boys” Challenging or Repackaging Hegemonic Masculinity
The National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics show that boys are underachieving in literacy compared to girls. Attempts to redress the problem in various Global North countries and particularly Australia and the United Kingdom have failed to make any impact. However, there are boys who are doing well in literacy. The aim of this article is to explore how high‐status constructions of masculinity are maintained alongside “successfully …
The construction of British Chinese educational success: Exploring the Shifting Discourses in Educational Debate, and Their Effects
The high achievement of British Chinese students in the British education system is established in the official literature and has recently been subject to increased attention and comment; albeit it remains the case that few studies have asked students or their families about the factors contributing to their success. This paper revisits findings from an earlier research project that investigated the extent to which British Chinese students and t…
The simultaneous production of educational achievement and popularity: How do some pupils accomplish it
In spite of research showing that pupils—particularly boys—tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12–13 year‐old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom subjectivities, with attention to their practices around gender and educational achievement. Data are dra…
Talking back to power: Snowballs in hell and the imperative of insisting on structural explanations
This viewpoint explores and shares our experience of ‘doing’ feminism in the context of its apparent ‘demise’. We were recently invited to attend an event at the Cabinet Office, to ‘discuss the impact aspirations and expectations within the community have on the educational achievement of young people in deprived areas’. The seminar was entitled, ‘Expert Seminar with the Minister for the Cabinet Office: Community Aspirations and Educational Attai…
Negotiating the Dichotomy of Boffin and Triad: British-Chinese Pupils' Constructions of 'Laddism
Little research has examined constructions of gender among young British-Chinese. This paper seeks to further understanding in this area, particularly in relation to notions of 'laddism' currently deployed in educational policy discourse around gender and achievement. As a group British-Chinese boys tend to very high achievement in the British Education system. The notion of 'laddish behaviour' as an explanation for boys' apparent underachievemen…
The impact of tracking by attainment on pupil self-confidence over time: Demonstrating the accumulative impact of self-fulfilling prophecy
The impact of self-fulfilling prophecy in education, and of attainment grouping on pupil self-perception, remain topics of longstanding debate, with important consequences for social in/justice. Focusing on self-confidence, this article draws on survey responses from 9,059 12-13 year olds who were tracked by subject (‘setting’). They provided survey responses when placed in ‘ability’ sets at the start of their secondary schooling, and again late …
Learners’ attitudes to mixed-attainment grouping: Examining the views of students of high, middle and low attainment
There is a substantial international literature around the impact of different types of grouping by attainment on the academic and personal outcomes of students. This literature, however, is sparse in student voices, especially in relation to mixed-attainment practices. Research has indicated that students of different attainment levels might have different experiences and views of grouping structures. This paper represents a significant contribu…
Towards social justice in education: Contradictions and dilemmas
The article builds on prior arguments that research on issues of social justice in education has often lacked constructive engagement with education policy-making, and that this can be partly attributed to a lack of clarity about what a socially just education system might look like. Extending this analysis, this article argues that this lack of clarity is perpetuated by a series of contradictions and dilemmas underpinning ‘progressive’ debate in…
Engendering debate: How to Formulate a Political Account of the Divide Between Genetic Bodies and Discursive Gender
In her article on ‘the Sign Woman’ on gender studies and feminist theory, Robyn Weigman identified the most profound challenges for contemporary feminist theory as twofold: ‘not simply to address the divide between genetic bodies and d\scursive gender but to offer a political analysis of the socially constructed afflictions between the two’. This article seeks to engage these challenges. It attempts to chart the terrain of dilemmas for gender the…
Gender monoglossia, gender heteroglossia: The potential of Bakhtin's work for re-conceptualising gender
The development of an analysis of gender which avoids conflations with sex, but which also acknowledges the powerful role of embodiment in gender production, has tantalised gender theorists for some time. Many writers have critiqued the slippage back to sexed bodies underlying various apparently social constructionist analyses of gendered behaviour. Conversely, some poststructuralist and ‘Third Wave’ accounts of gender have been accused of paying…
The Role of the Boffin as Abject other in Gendered Performances of School Achievement
The gendered subjectivities of high achieving school pupils are examined, demonstrating the uneasy relationship between high educational achievement and peer popularity. Drawing on data from a study involving classroom observation and interviews with 71 high-achieving pupils across nine secondary schools in England, the article focuses on the gendered construction of The Boffin. Judith Butler's work, and Hannah Arendt's conception of pariahs and …
Femininity, science, and the denigration of the girly girl
Hyper-femininity and the construction of the ‘girly girl’ label have been documented widely, but there has been less attention to their content (or any distinctions between these constructs). Indeed, it can be argued that the content of femininity remains a controversial and somewhat under-researched topic in feminist scholarship. This is also the case in relation to science, which has been widely characterised as a masculine terrain, but there h…
Children's Talk in Interviews about Gender Discrimination in Adult Occupation
This article focuses on primary school children's constructions of adult occupation in relation to gender, investigating whether or not they construct gender as a source of discrimination in the adult workplace. In order to do so, children were questioned about hypothetical scenarios concerning gender and adult work. By analysing their responses this paper investigates which gendered constructions appeared to prevail, and the ways in which childr…
Power Plays: Children's constructions of gender and power in role plays
This paper examines the way in which children's constructions of gender via discourse impact upon their interactive power positions. Discourse analysis is utilised in a feminist endeavour to investigate the social effects of gender discourse. Analysing the discussions of primary school children in group role plays, I conclude that although power is discursively produced (meaning that the myriads of different factors contributing to discursive pow…
Discussing Discrimination: Children's construction of sexism between pupils in primary school
Primary school children's interview responses are examined to investigate whether they construct gender as a source of discrimination in their school lives. Their reported experiences and descriptions of sexism in school are discussed, as well as their reports of strategies they employ to cope with or resist it. As social‐constructionist analysis is applied to the data, the children's discussion and reports of sexism are interpreted as their cons…
Modernist Reductionism or Post-structuralist Relativism: Can we move on? An Evaluation of the Arguments in Relation to Feminist Educational Research
Debate abounds concerning the extent to which post-structuralist theory can be usefully applied to feminist research. This article attempts to draw together and outline the main arguments, and to establish a position which might be built from in the future. The reasons why many feminist educational researchers have been attracted to post-structuralist theory are explored, as are the criticisms of post-structuralism as an inadequate, even androcen…
Rationalisation and Professionalisation: A comparison of the transfer of registered nurse education to higher education in Australia and the UK
During the latter part of the 1980s registered nurse education was transferred from hospital-based training to higher education in Australia and the UK. Examining this transfer process, analytical attention is focused on the contrast in subsequent funding arrangements for registered nurse education between the two nations. It is argued that the difference in funding arrangements can be explained by an analysis of two separate movements impacting …
Lads, Lasses and (New) Labour: 14-16-Year-Old Students' Responses to the 'Laddish Behaviour and Boys' Underachievement' Debate
The responses of secondary-school students to the claims of ex-Education Minister Stephen Byers concerning 'laddish behaviour' on the part of boys are examined. The data is drawn from an ESRC-funded study of 14-16-year-old students' constructions of gender, learning, and future educational and occupational pathways. The extent to which boys' classroom behaviour was constructed as 'laddish' by students is discussed, and the discourses pervading th…
Professional education as a structural barrier to lifelong learning in the NHS
The concept of the learning society is analysed in relation to the healthcare sector and various occupations within it. It is maintained that although traditional boundaries have been blurred or eroded in the workplace in recent years, there remains strong opposition to this erosion on the part of many healthcare professions. This professional demarcation is particularly illustrated by the educational arrangements for various healthcare occupatio…
Mainstreaming Equality in the European Union: Education, Training and Labour Market Policies
1. Introduction 2. The context 3. Conceptualising equal opportunities 4. The European Union and equal opportunities 5. Key issues in women's education and training in the UK 6. Skill shortages, women, and training for the new information technologies 7. EC community action programmes on education and training 8. The European Social Fund and LEONARDO DA VINCI 9. Competitiveness, social exclusion and the learning society: EO and the White Papers 10…
Men Teachers and the Construction of Heterosexual Masculinity in the Classroom
Many studies have identified the classroom as an arena for the construction of gender and sexuality. Yet there has been relatively little attention to the role of teachers here, or to the deeper dynamics of teachers' constructions of gender and sexuality in the classroom. This article attempts to address these issues, examining the perpetuation of (sexist) heterosexual norms in the classroom by male teachers. Drawing on data from fieldwork in pri…
Commonality and Difference? Attempts to Escape From Theoretical Dualisms in Emancipatory Research in Education
Recent philosophical debates have questioned the bases of identity politics in educational research and elsewhere, drawing attention to complexity and diversity of identity. These arguments will be briefly rehearsed, with reference to feminist theory. The criticism that one facet of identity (e.g. gender) cannot be analysed in isolation from others has sometimes been addressed via the study of the 'intersection' or 'interaction' of these various …
Playing Safe: Undergraduate essay writing and the presentation of the student 'voice
For undergraduate students, the act of essay writing involves not only the struggle to understand and critically engage with a particular area of knowledge, but also the struggle to successfully utilise the language that must be used in order to communicate this engagement. Based on interviews with final-year undergraduates from four different universities, this article focuses on the difficulties students face in acquiring the language necessary…
Playing Safe: Undergraduate essay writing and the presentation of the student 'voice
For undergraduate students, the act of essay writing involves not only the struggle to understand and critically engage with a particular area of knowledge, but also the struggle to successfully utilise the language that must be used in order to communicate this engagement. Based on interviews with final-year undergraduates from four different universities, this article focuses on the difficulties students face in acquiring the language necessary…
An Analysis of Undergraduate Writing Styles in the Context of Gender and Achievement
Despite the increased use of blind-marking in undergraduate examinations, gendered patterns persist in the figures on achievement at undergraduate level in British universities. It has been suggested that in the humanities, such differences in achievement might be explained by differences in writing style according to gender. This article examines data drawn from an analysis of undergraduate students' writing in order to investigate the extent to…
Relativism, Realism, and Feminism: An analysis of some theoretical tensions in research on gender identity
Recently research on gender has exhibited a preoccupation with gender identity (particularly illustrated by the burgeoning body of work on masculinity). This work has frequently articulated and reflected a convincing attack on established positions in the area, drawing on post-modernist and post-feminist theory in order to challenge the notion of a fixed self, and to problematise the very concept of gender. Such positions present a challenge to t…
University Lecturers' Perceptions of Gender and Undergraduate Writing
It has been argued that male and female undergraduates adopt different, gendered writing styles. This paper discusses findings from a project that examined this issue, and explores lecturers' perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing. It shows that, in the case of 'second-class' awarded essays, a majority of academics were unable to correctly identify the authors gender. Applying analysis of discourse to the explanations of academics concer…
Personal and political: Feminisms, sociology and family lives
Gender, student confidence and communicative styles at university: The Views of Lecturers in History and Psychology
This study examines the perceptions of 100 university lecturers in history and psychology regarding the impact of gender on their students' achievement. Qualitative data were gathered from semi‐structured interviews and analysed according to discipline and gender of respondent. Key findings were that most respondents (with the exception of most female history lecturers) did not believe gender had an impact on essay writing style but that it did h…
Reassessing Gender and Achievement
Challenging current theories about gender and achievement, this book assesses the issues at stake and analyses the policy drives and changing perceptions of gender on which the 'gender and achievement' debates are based. This new topical book guides the reader through the different theories and approaches, drawing together and reviewing work on gender and educational performance. The authors also highlight the continuing problems experienced by g…
Gender, ‘bias’, assessment and feedback: Analyzing the written assessment of undergraduate history essays
This paper reports on findings relating to a project on gender and essay assessment in HE. It focuses on one aspect of the study: the assessment of and feedback given to two sample essays by 50 historians based at universities in England and Wales. We found considerable variation both as to the classification awarded to the essays and to positive and negative comments made about their quality, supporting the argument that the ‘quality’ of a piece…
Constructions of racism by British Chinese pupils and parents
British Chinese pupils stand out as a high achieving group within the British education system and yet very little theoretical or policy attention has been given to these pupils' identities and experiences of education. In this paper we consider British Chinese pupils' (and parents') reports of their experiences of racism/s and their views on the potential causes of—and their responses to—racism. Analysis teases out several key components within …
They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: Teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning
This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Considerat…
British—Chinese pupils' and parents' constructions of the value of education
The high achievement of British—Chinese pupils in the British education system is established in the official literature, but few studies have asked British—Chinese pupils or parents about the factors contributing to their success. This paper explores value of education as a possible contributory aspect. It investigates the extent to which British—Chinese pupils and their parents value education, and the rationale behind their constructions in th…
Negotiating the Dichotomy of Boffin and Triad: British-Chinese Pupils' Constructions of 'Laddism
Little research has examined constructions of gender among young British-Chinese. This paper seeks to further understanding in this area, particularly in relation to notions of 'laddism' currently deployed in educational policy discourse around gender and achievement. As a group British-Chinese boys tend to very high achievement in the British Education system. The notion of 'laddish behaviour' as an explanation for boys' apparent underachievemen…
The Sage Handbook of Gender and Education
Understanding Minority Ethnic Achievement: Race, Gender, Class and 'Success'
Providing fresh insights and understandings about educationally ‘successful’ minority ethnic pupils, this book examines the views, identities and educational experiences of those pupils who are undoubtedly ‘achieving’, but who tend to remain ignored within popular concerns about under-achievement. Combining a broad analysis of minority ethnic pupils’ achievement together with a novel, detailed case study of an educationally ‘successful’ group, th…
Sociology (58 works) · Psychology (50 works) · Political science (40 works) · Gender Studies (37 works) · Pedagogy (28 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (26 works) · Gender Studies (25 works) · Law (24 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Social science (20 works)