Gender and Achievement: Evidence from Northern Ireland

Author(s): Tony Gallagher
Document Type: Article
Year: 1998
Title of Publication: International Journal of Inclusive Education
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd
Place of Publication: England
ISBN: 1360 3116
Volume: 2, Issue 2
Pages: 155-167
Subject Area(s): Education Attainment
Client Group(s) : Children, Young People

Abbreviations: NI - Northern Ireland

Background to the Research

  • The paper examines evidence showing that the academic performance of girls in NI has risen at a faster rate than for boys. While policy concern has tended to concentrate on religious differences, the paper suggests that this may help to create a discursive environment within which equity considerations are given more attention. Thus there has not been the same evidence of 'moral panic' over gender differences in education and the focus on religious differences has drawn wider attention to the role of social dimensions mediating performance. The paper argues that current gender patterns are related to rising expectations among girls that can be linked to equal opportunity measures. It is not that something has gone wrong for the boys, but rather that something that has gone right for the girls.

Research Approach

  • The paper begins by offering a brief outline of the basic features of the education system in NI.
  • It reviews research evidence which has focused on gender achievement, highlighting evidence of an emerging pattern that the achievement levels of girls, as measured by examination results, is rising at a faster rate than that for boys.
  • It then considers, briefly, the broader context of research on educational achievement in NI.

Main Findings

  • Much of the research on achievement in NI has tended to focus either on the outputs of the two religious school systems or on the consequences of the selective system.
  • There has been very much less large scale research on gender issues and practically no research in NI on the ethnic minorities beyond the main religious groups.
  • There is a greater tendency for girls to stay beyond compulsory schooling than boys.
  • The lowest level of measured achievement is found among boys leaving Catholic secondary schools in comparison with those leaving Protestant secondary schools.
  • Throughout the 1980s, the examination pattern for boys had changed little, while that for girls had moved towards a science only, or science and arts mix.
  • Changes in the pattern of A-level subject choice were attributable less to girls perceptions of the academic subjects themselves, and more to their perceptions of the occupational opportunities they believed to be open to them in the future.

Conclusions

The evidence on gender and achievement in NI considered in this paper highlights a number of themes:

  • Gender has been given less priority than religion in policy and research in NI.
  • Despite this, the fact that there has been so much research on religious differences in educational achievement has meant that a lot of data on gender and achievement has been available, albeit that it has not received the extent of concern it should have received.
  • Overall attainment levels, as measured by performance in public examinations, has steadily increased over a considerable period of time.
  • The attainment levels of boys has risen over time, but the rate of increase has been higher for girls than boys.
  • For girls, the changed patterns of A-level subject choice were linked to preferred career and a view held by girls that the opportunities available to them were wider than in the past. The article suggests that this pattern perhaps highlights the positive gains of equal opportunities measures over the past two decades.
  • In educational terms, it highlights a factor which may independently affect the achievement level of girls in a positive direction.
  • The paper suggests that anti-school cultures and disaffection may help to explain some of the low achievement levels of some boys: this may represent a factor which independently, or predominately, affects boy's achievement levels.

 


 

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