Differential Educational Achievement by Gender: Peer Group Interaction

welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on gender and education looking at peer group interactions first of all we need to examine what sociologists mean by peer group interactions with particular reference to gender peer groups peer groups are often seen as the friendship groups that students find themselves in but also can be interactions with other

students outside of their immediate friendship group as well it's often argued that young people's peers do more to shape their identity and influence their achievement than others in the individual's life for girls peer groups are often seen as having a positive effect on the educational achievement of girls with the support and cooperation between

members of the group more likely than in male peer groups male peer groups on the other hand often turn away from education as it is seen as feminised and this leads to the development of anti-school or laddish subcultural groups that reaffirm males values of what is feminine and what is masculine so first we'll look at female peer

groups according to francis schools encourage girls to form academic identities that lend themselves towards more positive and supportive peer group interactions girls are encouraged inside a school to cooperate and collaborate on school work particularly in contemporary education and this suits their style of learning girls are often used to improve boys achievement because of these qualities

and it earns them status and improves their self-esteem in education however this is not the case for all girls louise archer identified the development of hyper-heterosexual identities in peer groups of working-class girls in her research in these subcultures girls gain symbolic capital from their peers for having boyfriends wearing makeup and adopting a