Exploring gender and educational achievement accounts for the recent improvements in the educational performance of girls
In the 1980`s gender equity issues were focused on the under-achievement of females, however in the mid 1990`s the concern has reversed to the under-achievement of boys, this has put equal opportunities back on the agenda. ... In this essay I will discuss the way in which girls performance in education relative to boys, has changed over the last 30 years, I will look at the differences between gender and education, I will also illustrate the contributions of feminism to education, I will focus on the elements of practice that were considered detrimental to the performance of girls, I will then proceed on to other area’s other than the contribution of feminists and suggest other reasons such as the teachers attitudes and the behaviour of girls and boys for the improvement of girls performances. I will also demonstrate an awareness that needs to be treated with caution, on the suggestion that “All girls are doing better” Lastly I shall compare and contrast two different explanations for differential educational achievements and propose which one of the explanations I consider to be the strongest. Over the last 30 years there has been a considerable amount of changes in the performance in education by girls and boys, throughout the years a number of different researches have took place (Gaby Weiner, Madeleine Arnot and Miriam David 1997) summarized the changes discourses concern with gender and education, in 1970 to the early 1980 the emphasis was on female disadvantages, they looked at equal opportunities and anti-sexism.