Background to the Research

• With the educational achievement of girls increasing significantly in comparison with boys since the mid-1980s, a moral panic has surrounded boys 'underachievement' and encouraged crude and essentialist comparisons. The differences that exist within the two gender categories have been very much overlooked, a prime example being the issues of social class and 'race'/ethnicity, which have been shown to exert a much more significant and profound impact upon boys' educational achievements. This article argues for the need to fully contextualise existing gender differences in educational achievement within the overriding contexts provided by social class and 'race'/ethnicity.
  

Research Approach

• The article is based upon interviews (friendship groups of three) with 11-year old children from a Catholic working-class area of Belfast, drawn from a Primary 7 class.
  

Main Findings

• The children in this study were not even expected to sit the 11+ never mind pass it and progress to a grammar school. The children's class teacher revealed frustration that they were not encouraged to take the exam, although he himself did not particularly promote it, since most of the children wanted to go to the local secondary schools anyway.
• Both the girls and the boys tended to express very little desire to take the 11+ or progress onto a grammar school. A handful of girls did talk positively about school and took the 11+ with the desire to go to grammar school. While none of these girls consequently gained the necessary grade, the fact that they even aspired to this, given the lack of support and encouragement from the school, is noteworthy.

The Girls' Educational Aspirations

• While the majority of girls expressed little desire to go to grammar school and/or to develop a professional career, a small number did, with their desire to go to Our Lady's Grammar School evident.
• The interviews revealed the role played by some parents in dissuading their children from wishing to go to grammar school. The inability of parents to offer adequate educational support and coaching to their children and the parents' own limited schooling experiences tend to provide the context within which many may feel threatened by the prospect of their child going to grammar school.
• Those girls who took the 11+ were acutely aware of the fact that they received little support or encouragement from their school.
• The desire to be successful in the 11+ and progress to grammar school appears to be at least partly related to long-term career aspirations. A small number did want to continue with their studies and to get a professional career - most commonly as teachers.

The Boys' Educational Aspirations

• In contrast to the girls' conversations, the boys had very little interest in the topics of the 11+, grammar schools and the transfer of schools. The 11+ exam was not mentioned once in the small group interviews, and the topic of moving to secondary school was only raised once by a boy trying to change the subject of conversation. The transfer to secondary school seems a foregone conclusion for the boys, with the opportunity to go to grammar school not even being considered. The need to stay together seemed to be their only concern.
• The boys also tended to fantasize about their futures, but their more immediate aspirations tended to be less ambitious than the girls and to be related to the experiences of significant men in their lives.

The Local Area

• Many of the Catholic children revealed the sense of threat experienced by those living near an interface area and the children were often involved in conflict with Protestant children. Most of the children were involved in fighting and stone throwing of some nature. Boys tended to take the lead, while the girls were more likely to watch and support.
• The fighting has become so commonplace that it provides a source of humour and tales for some of the children. Such routine, and the many political and military flags and symbols, are the main route for the development and reproduction of a strong sense of locality and community, which for the children means not venturing beyond the boundaries of their own community.

The Boys' Constructions of Locality

• The greater involvement of the boys in the fighting and stone throwing tended to reflect a greater sense of territory and the need to defend that territory. This in turn tended to feed into more general masculine notions of strength and physicality, as shown by the number of occasions they talked about and identified with the IRA.
• Their knowledge of, and identification with, the IRA tended to be enhanced by the significant adult men in their lives.
• The boys never talked about incidents where they may have visited other areas, such as the city centre, on their own/with their friends. The focus on defending their territory appeared to have created a strong bond between them and the local area. The only time they talked about leaving their local area was in relation to family holidays or youth club trips.

The Girls' Constructions of Locality

• The girls tended to construct their sense of locality through a heightened knowledge and awareness of their immediate community.
• They never raised the topic of the IRA or more general paramilitary activity. They were more likely to show their interest in the local community through an intricate knowledge of events and incidents and were able to gain social capital from such knowledge.
• The girls had a slightly different attitude to venturing out of their locality, such that while they were still extremely wary and aware of dangers, they were slightly more likely to do so.

Conclusions

• The differing constructions of locality among the girls and boys may play a part in explaining the differences in educational aspirations, as the precise role of locality in shaping identity has been different for boys and girls. The boys' greater physical identification with their local area, and unwillingness to move beyond it, may help explain their greater tendency not to engage in aspirational thinking not directed to their own area. This is also evident in them being less likely to even consider taking the 11+ and going to grammar school, which would represent both a social and physical break for them.
• The concepts of habitus, social capital and symbolic violence have helped to explain how locality has tended to limit the boys' future educational and career aspirations in comparison with the girls.
• The article concludes by noting that, while constructions of locality are extraordinarily significant within the context of NI, these types of processes may also be evident in other areas.