[senco-forum] Is there gender/culture bias in our education & exam system? (Was) Inclusion and league tables (English GCSE)

Mark - you have expressed eloquently something I have become more

I completely agree that the system as it stands is against boys,   
particularly those who desperately want to be "cool" and therefore  
not do any work.  It is leading to a gender imbalance beyond the  
classroom.  For several years now,  there have been far more girls  
than boys accepted for veterinary schools.  I would expect that the  
same thing is happening in medicine. I AM NOT URGING POSITIVE  
DISCRIMINATION FOR MALE ENTRANTS but I do consider that we need to be  
aware that the balance has changed.
I am all for encouraging the virtues of hard work and perseverance  
but shutting boys out from  careers they have the ability to pursue -  
at whatever level - is going to lead to social problems.  Jill
On 16 Dec 2006, at 13:30, senco_rik wrote:

> Mark - you have expressed eloquently something I have become more
> and more concerned about.
>
> What I am about to say will, I suspect, be taken as racist and
> sexist by some. My intent, however, is simply to ask whether we
> have an education system that correctly balances the competing
> needs of different genders and cultures.
>
>
> Not so many decades ago, I studied "Teaching Mathematics to Low
> Attainers"
>
> In those (pre-GCSE) days, Maths like several subjects was "white
> male dominated", in the sense that there were rather more male
> Maths teachers, and boys achieved significantly more highly than
> girls in that subject (and indeed in several others). A "Big
> Issue" for our course was "WHY ARE GIRLS SO MUCH WEAKER AT MATHS
> THAN BOYS?" There were several % points of attainment difference
> between the genders in favour of boys, and much subjective
> evidence that girls were less motivated in Maths, Geography and
> other subjects.
>
> As a part of our course, we investigated various examinations for
> possible "gender bias".
> We found that marks for recall and fact, marks for application of
> fact to (for example) an engineering problem, were given in
> greater number than the marks for expressing touchy-feely
> feelings, communicating emotions, empathy and so on.
> We looked at research that suggested that boys are better at the
> former, girls better at the latter.
> We concluded that there was indeed "gender bias".
> We also looked, much less thoroughly, at the emerging issue of
> "cultural identity", and identified that the exam system was
> similarly biased in favour of the white, British, middle class
> culture.
>
> Over the following decade as more people became aware of this,
> the gender and culture pendulums swung, and have continued to
> swing:
>
> In came GCSE then National Curriculum, in came a curriculum that
> was very much more "touchy-feely". This in turn appears to have
> changed the gender balance of the education work-force, perhaps
> as women now find the curriculum itself more "female friendly".
> Looking at the education staff in secondary schools, let alone
> primary schools, how many now have an approximate balance between
> the genders, let alone cultures? My local primary schools have an
> education staff that is over 95% female. If it were 95% male, we
> might hear complaints of male domination and discrimination
> against females. I wonder why there is no complaint aired that
> such a gender imbalance is a form of discrimination against boys,
> so deprived of male role models.
>
> My own observation of exam papers and texts in recent years,
> albeit very unscientific suggests that we now have an exam
> culture that has at least as great a bias in the opposite
> direction to that of the '60s and '70s. Surprise, surprise, we
> find the gender gap in Maths (and other subjects, but I know less
> about these) has reversed, the cultural issue has been met
> head-on, leaving the white, working class boy disenfranchised and
> alienated as you describe, Mark, so eloquently below.
>
> Am I correct in having a sneeking suspicion that within our forum
> there would appear to be a gender imbalance between male and
> female SENCOs on this forum and in the wider education system?
> Is there a similar bias in cultural background?
>
> Is such imbalance or bias helpful, and if not what could or
> should we all do about it?
> Have any of these pendulums now swung too far away from the
> biases that I found in the '60s and '70s?
>
> With apologies to anyone reading archives, I have left the
> previous postings below, as I think they were the true start of
> this amended subject line.
>
> Rik
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
> [mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
> webmaster at aylesburyvale-sec.bucks.sch.uk
> Sent: 15 December 2006 10:32
> To: Amanda; Bill Graham; senco-forum
> Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Inclusion and league tables (English
> GCSE)
>
> I teach English in a Secondary PRU. I can see exactly where you
> are coming from.
>
> I too agree that the coursework element is not the problem for
> less able students. For example for our prose study we also do
> 'Of Mice and Men'. We take the kids off timetable for an 'Of Mice
> and Men' day. During this day we look at photos from the
> depression, read and discuss a couple of excerpts from the book,
> watch the John Malkovich film (the scene with Curly's hand always
> goes down well)and have a debate.
>
> During the week afterwards we interview each student
> (individually, not in class) asking lots of questions until we
> get as good a mark as we think possible for that child.
>
> I have BIG issues with the exam though. It is becoming more and
> more 'boy unfriendly'. Let me give some examples.
>
> Teaching the poetry element to kids permanently excluded is a
> real challenge I can tell you. Simon Armitage used to be part of
> the English exam (he now only features in Literature which we
> don't teach). It was _great_ teaching Armitage.
> Here was a white working class poet writing poetry all about the
> world in which these kids live.
>
> There was a poem about his regret for heating up scissors in a
> bunsen burner and passing them to a girl. 'Have you ever done
> anything at school you've regretted?' I would ask.
> There were poems about picking up and murdering a hitchhiker
> because of being angry about something else. Poems about domestic
> violence and the way people turn out to be different than you
> expect.
>
> This was a poet that British working class kids could really
> identify with.
>
> Now they only get to study poetry from 'other cultures'.
> They find it difficult to identify with the woman who speaks two
> languages and feels her native language growing in her throat
> like a flower. They are not interested in the mother who is glad
> the scorpion stung her and not her children, or the kids dancing
> about in the heat of a foreign country just because the water
> main has burst. I could go on. I find these poems difficult to
> engage with, let alone the kids!
>
> Then there are the non-fiction texts on exam papers. Cookery
> Books! Adverts to become a teacher. Book catalogues. When they do
> include a magazine ad' for a car it is one aimed at women and
> discusses how great the Nissan Micra is for shopping!
>
> I am really concerned that both English and the rest of the
> curriculum is becoming so alien to working class boys. When I was
> at school D.T. meant grabbing a hammer and anvil whacking the
> hell out of a piece of metal straight from a forge. Nowadays D.T.
> means 4 weeks of researching and designing a sandwich, one week
> making it and two weeks evaluating it.
>
> Sorry, I better end my rant now and go for a nice lie down!
>
> Mark
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Amanda <amandavh at btinternet.com>
> To: Bill Graham <williamgraham at blueyonder.co.uk>, senco-forum
> <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Inclusion and league tables (English
> GCSE)
> Date: 14-Dec-2006 18:19:03 GMT
>
>> Hi Lorraine
>>   As a secondary SENCO and English teacher, I am very
> sympathetic to
>> what you say.
>>   However, I don't think that Shakespeare need be a problem for
> pupils
>> with learning difficulties and poor reading skills.  We only
> have to
>> do that as coursework so no need to revise it for an exam.  We
> tend to
>> use 'Romeo and Juliet', show the Baz Luhrmann version and then
> look at
>> one short scene using a cartoon book version.  I've got pupils
> up as
>> far as an E grade like this.  Same for the prose reading -
> choose
>> something short like 'Of Mice and Men', read it to them and get
> them
>> to respond to a question about relationships in the novel.
> Plus you
>> can assess reading for coursework through talk for one out of
> the two
>> assignments.
>>   To me the issue is far more about the exam paper.  Yes it
> tests
>> reading so you can't read them the reading part of the paper.
>> However, you can read them the writing part of the paper now
> AND they
>> can dictate responses, which is a major improvement which only
> came in
>> two years ago.
>> Before that they were entirely on their own.
>>   BUT anyone else tried teaching the poetry to pupils aiming at
> grades
>> F and G?  Or tried to explain that the exam paper names one
> poem but
>> you have to choose another one and it must be the right one?
> Or made
>> sure they know that you answer only one of the essay questions?
> The
>> paper itself is a nightmare.
>>   AND I have been looking for an entry level certificate which
> does
>> not say that pupils can only attempt a piece of work once and
> that the
>> work must be time limited.  In the maths entry level done at my
> school
>> there are five versions of each test and if they fail they can
> take a
>> second version two weeks later.  In AQA Entry Level English, I
> must
>> make my pupils take time limited tests which they can't repeat
> - and
>> some have to be submitted as part of the portfolio.
>>
>>   Amanda
>>   Secondary SENCO
>>   Cornwall
>>
>>
>> Bill Graham <williamgraham at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
>>   I've just read the article mentioned in a recent posting. How
> true
>> it is!  I was upset yesterday because I really think that our
> kids get
>> a raw deal especially in secondary where KS4 courses are
> concerned. It
>> seems that it's not every child who matters but every school! I
>
>> thought the spirit of inclusion was built around making kids
> feel
>> valued it seems not - they are forced into unsuitable/
> inappropriate
>> exam choices because the data counts - the numbers of GCSEs
> they get
>> is vital.
>>
>> I feel particularly aggrieved over English because they have to
> do
>> this and get a GCSE without the help of a reader. It's not only
> the
>> course content (shakespeare etc) which is bad enough but it's
> being
>> faced with an examination they just can't access. It must be
> totally
>> demoralising doing this and I don't see how a grade G does them
> any
>> good - except for the school. Yes we do entry level but they
> still
>> have to be entered for GCSE. What makes it worse is data
> predictions -
>> I have a kid who has great difficulties in reading and writing
> and the
>> data suggests he should be getting grade Es jiust because it's
> based
>> on KS2 levels in ma and science where he had a reader.
>>
>> I feel torn between the devil and the deep blue sea - I have
> outside
>> agencies saying these kids shouldn't be entered and the school
> saying
>> they have to be. When will government realise if they want
> inclusion
>> in mainstream schools then something has to give - otherwise
> inclusion
>> becomes exclusion.
>>
>> Incidentally - if there are any secondary sencos out there
>> - what do your schools to do to overcome this problem (esp in
> Eng) or
>> are we all in the same boat? Suggestions welcome.
>>
>> Lorraine
>>
>>
>>
>> Amanda
>> Secondary SENCO
>> Cornwall
>>
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>
>
> --
> Mark Norwood
> www.avssc.org
> "The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail"
> Stephen Fry
>
>
>
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