Social Class Gender And Ethnicity Intersect With Educational Achievement And Participation

In what ways do social class, gender and ethnicity intersect with educational achievement and participation?

Introduction

This essay critically explores the ways in which social class, gender and ethnicity intersect with educational achievement and participation. According to Faas and Moriarty (2014) “ education is the major social institution for transmitting knowledge and skills, as well as, teaching cultural norms and values”, however, it regularly seen that schools assign education based on students’ social background and status resulting in the creation of inequalities in the achievement and participation in their studies. This essay separates social class, gender and ethnicity and focuses on each one in depth to get a better

According to Jacobs (1996), literatures based on gender inequalities “often treats all aspects of education disadvantaging women”. However one could argue against Jacobs’ statement that women today are seen to achieve more advantages in education and a reversal in roles between men and women in education is evident in some areas (Buchmann, Diprete and McDaniel, 2007). Women can and do achieve success in education as well as men do. The preconceived idea that females achieve less than their male counterparts has been argued against by studies showing that female motivation and determination to succeed in education equals or often surpasses male achievement (Mickelson, 1989). According to Treiman and Terrell (1975) women’s status in society was based upon the success of their husband and therefore education was seen as less important for women to achieve than their spouses, education was thought to be a luxury for women rather than a right like it was thought to be for men. This concept of education lead women to believe the education they received was a reward (Mickelson, 1989). The traditional assumption of a woman’s lack of right for an education can lead women to allow themselves to value their opportunities in their academics. This concept brought about a role reversal for males and females in education, beginning in the 1990’s

The matter of subject take-up patterns from early second level education reveals that gender differences have hardly changed over time. On entering second level schools onwards, students tend to follow the path of traditional gender stereotypes when it comes to the subjects they study. It can be widely seen that males outnumber females in the take-up of “practical studies” for example in technical drawing, construction studies and engineering whereas more females than males tend to study home economics, art, music and European languages. However one must take into account the fact that in Ireland approximately 36 per cent of second-level pupils today attend single-sex schools, unlike other European countries where there are no single sex schools (Department of Education and Science, 2007). The fact that these schools are single sex only the tend to provide subjects based on the students they house leaving girls with only the choice from the traditional “female” subjects to study and likewise boys have only the traditional “male subjects” to choose from. According the Department of Education and Science (2007) this trend of gender typical subject take-ups follow through to third level education. Areas of specialization continue to be gender linked with mathematics, engineering, and the physical and biological sciences being dominated by males and the