(Mis)Understanding underachievement
A response to Connolly
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11635469 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Gorard (0000-0002-9381-5991, University of Birmingham, corresponding author), Emma Smith (0009-0005-3138-8727), Emma M Smith (0000-0003-2541-5723, University of Birmingham) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 705-714 |
| Publication date | 2008-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0142-5692 • E-ISSN: 1465-3346 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01425690802423379 |
| OpenAlex | W1971795756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 22 |
In British Journal of Sociology of Education Volume 29 number 3, 2008, Connolly presented what he termed a ‘critical review’ of some of our previous work on the relative attainment of male and female students in UK schools. He proposed three general areas for criticism – our use of attainment gaps, our consideration of outcomes other than at specific thresholds, and our querying of the idea of student ‘underachievement’. These problems, he claimed, have ‘given rise to a number of misleading conclusions that have questionable implications for practice’. However, those of his ‘criticisms’ with any merit are actually the same as our own conclusions, transmuted by Connolly from our papers that he cites, while his remaining ‘criticisms’ are based on faulty elementary logic. In case readers have not read our work and were somehow misled by Connolly, we give here a brief reply to each criticism in turn. This matters, because a greater understanding of patterns of attainment and of the nature of underachievement is a precursor to the design of successful initiatives to overcome inequalities in educational opportunity and reward. This is both a practical and an ethical issue
CITES · Criticism · Economics · Educational attainment · Epistemology · Political science · Positive economics · Sociology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Law · Psychology · School Choice and Performance · Social Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
Sex, Gender and Society
A critical review of some recent developments in quantitative research on gender and achievement in the United Kingdom
Minding the Gap
Gendered experiences, choices and achievement — exploring the links
Reappraising the Apparent Underachievement of Boys at School
Two dimensions of time
Logged on to learning? assessing the impact of technology on participation in lifelong learning
Understanding Underachievement
Towards a judgement‐based statistical analysis
Patterns of Participation in Lifelong Learning
Investigating the Patterns of Differential Attainment of Boys and Girls at School
Failing Boys and Moral Panics
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2017 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |