Gender And Social Classroom Analysis

In today’s society there are two ongoing debates around gender and social class. A child’s gender or social class can greatly impact their educational outcomes such as their behaviour in the classroom, their overall achievement, (Skelton & Francis, 2003) and their school attendance (McCoy et al., 2007). It is very important teachers consider a child’s gender and social class in the classroom however, as highlighted in many studies, children just want to be treated the same (Lynch and Lodge, 2002). This greatly impacts my role as a teacher as it is important to ensure I am an equalitarian teacher. However, it is also important to ensure each child reaches their full potential and this might require giving some children extra help which I would …show more content…
Children are greatly influenced by their family’s gender equality views and opinions, which according to Kolhberg (1981) cited in Aina and Cameron (2011) effects how children behave, particularly in the classroom. A child’s family background also impacts their educational outcomes as according to Eiver et al. (2004) cited by MacRuairc, (2009) the most substantial reason for achievement or underachievement is socio-economic status. It is evident that children’s background and their families view around gender equality, can greatly impact their educational outcomes; however school, in particular teachers also greatly influence them. Teachers play a role in children’s views around gender equality as children are greatly influenced by teacher’s attitudes, behaviour and norms. The organisation of the school systems also relates to the problem of social class inequality which can greatly impact children life chances, according to MacRuairc (2009). Kehily (2001) and Booher-Jennings (2008) state that this takes place through the hidden curriculum. In school, when assessing educational outcomes, there are differences between girls and boys and children from middle class and working class backgrounds. These educational outcomes include their behaviour in the classroom, their academic achievement and their …show more content…
Working class children tend to leave school with less and weaker qualifications than pupils from middle class backgrounds, tend to be lower academically compared to working-class pupils and are less likely to achieve five GCSE A - C grades (MacRuairc, 2009 and Dunne & Gazeley 2008). Teachers also play a role in children underachieving as according to Dunne & Gazeley, (2008) teachers develop judgements of pupils based on their social class identities and constantly describe children from working class backgrounds to have lower educational and occupational aspirations. In a study conducted by McCoy et al. (2007), working class students felt their teachers didn’t help them to do their best. Reasons for this include teachers seeing them as more difficult to teach and therefore prepare less and invest less time in them (Lynch and Lodge, 2002). As teachers are not expecting much from working class children and don’t seem to believe in them, they don’t care as much about their education. Teacher-pupil relationships also greatly impact whether or not students are absent from school, as highlighted in McCoy et al. (2007)’s study children from working class backgrounds were much more likely to be absent from school than those from middle class backgrounds. However, it is important to mention that teacher education programmes do not equip teachers with strategies to identify and