Becky Francis

British–Chinese pupils' and parents' constructions of the value of education

The high achievement of British–Chinese pupils in the British education system is established in the official literature, but few studies have asked British–Chinese pupils or parents about the factors contributing to their success. This paper explores value of education as a possible contributory aspect. It investigates the extent to which British–Chinese pupils and their parents value education, and the rationale behind their constructions in this regard. Cultural issues in the transmission of values are also explored. The findings demonstrate that British–Chinese pupils and their parents place an extremely high value on education, irrespective of social class and gender. However, pupils and parents do not necessarily provide the same explanations for this value. There is evidence, though, that the discourse of ‘value of education’ is mobilised as part of a cultural construction of racialised boundaries relating to the diasporic habitus of the Chinese in Britain. The paper discusses the benefits, costs a...

Is the Future Really Female? The Impact and Implications of Gender for 14-16 Year Olds' Career Choices

The career aspirations of 14-16 year old students are analysed in terms of gender. In the literature concerning boys apparent underperformance at GCSE level it has sometimes been argued that boys have low occupational aspirations, or that they are unaware of changes in the employment market. Such arguments are evaluated in the light of my findings concerning gender and career choice. It is shown that girls occupational choices have become far more ambitious than was previously the case. However, boys occupational aspirations remain high, questioning some assumptions in the literature. Yet it is maintained that the choices of both girls and boys still reflect to some extent a deeply embedded gender dichotomy, and that in this sense their choices demonstrate little recognition of changes in the adult employment market.

‘They never go off the rails like other ethnic groups’: teachers’ constructions of British Chinese pupils’ gender identities and approaches to learning

This paper examines the ways in which British Chinese pupils are positioned and represented within the popular/dominant discourse of teachers working in London schools. Drawing on individual interviews from a study conducted with 30 teachers, 80 British Chinese pupils and 30Chinese parents, we explore some of the racialised, gendered and classed assumptions upon which dominant discourses around British Chinese boys and girls are based. Consideration is given, for example, to teachers’ dichotomous constructions of British Chinese masculinity, in which British Chinese boys were regarded as ‘naturally’ ‘good’ and ‘not laddish’, compared with a minority of ‘bad’ British Chinese boys, whose laddishness was attributed to membership of a multiethnic peer group. We also explore teachers’ constructions of British Chinese femininity, which centred around remarkably homogenised representations of British Chinese girls as ‘passive’ and quiet, ‘repressed’, hard‐working pupils. The paper discusses a range of alternative readings that challenge popular monolithic and homogenising accounts of British Chinese masculinity and femininity in order to open up more critical ways of representing and engaging with British Chinese educational ‘achievement’.

Gender, ‘bias’, assessment and feedback: analyzing the written assessment of undergraduate history essays

This paper reports on findings relating to a project on gender and essay assessment in HE. It focuses on one aspect of the study: the assessment of and feedback given to two sample essays by 50 historians based at universities in England and Wales. We found considerable variation both as to the classification awarded to the essays and to positive and negative comments made about their quality, supporting the argument that the ‘quality’ of a piece of writing for assessment is ultimately constructed by the reader of the essay and cannot be objectively ascertained. Gender issues emerging from the data are explored in the paper, relating to lecturers’ perceptions of the essays’ qualities; views concerning the way feedback should be presented; and the content and style of feedback given by lecturers on the sample essays. We found that gender constructions were manifested more in presentation than practice. These findings on the situated practice of assessment have implications for the conception of the ‘reliability’ of essay assessment in HE.

Subject Choice and Occupational Aspirations among Pupils at Girls' Schools

Abstract Various studies have found that British girls curriculum subject preferences and future aspirations have changed and diversified in recent years. Other work has suggested that girls educated in single-sex schools might have a different (perhaps less gender-stereotypical) experience of education in comparison with their contemporaries at co-educational schools. This article draws on a study of the preferences of girls in English single-sex schools to explore these issues of subject choice and occupational aspiration further. It is argued that, like girls in mixed-sex secondary schools, single-sex schoolgirls subject preferences have become more diverse and less gender-stereotypical than was the case twenty years ago. But where single-sex schoolgirls might have been expected to rate maths and science more highly than their counterparts in mixed-sex schools, the reverse was the case. Our findings support the argument that girls are now significantly more academically focused and ambitious for their future occupations than they were twenty years ago. However, we argue that a gender dichotomy remains evident in the types of future occupation chosen by girls.

University lecturers’ perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing

It has been argued that male and female undergraduates adopt different, gendered writing styles. This paper discusses findings from a project that examined this issue, and explores lecturers perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing. It shows that, in the case of second-class awarded essays, a majority of academics were unable to correctly identify the authors gender. Applying analysis of discourse to the explanations of academics concerning their attempts at gender identification, we found that narratives used by academics tended to support discourses of gender difference, particularly in terms of ability. These various narratives, and the resulting constructions of male and female students, are discussed. It is argued that the narratives position male and female students in stereotypical ways, with implications for their power positions. We conclude that while it is important that gendered trends around undergraduate writing are recognised and addressed, the stereotyping of students according to gender must be avoided.

Negotiating the dichotomy of Boffin and Triad: British-Chinese pupils’ constructions of ‘laddism’

Little research has examined constructions of gender among young British-Chinese. This paper seeks to further understanding in this area, particularly in relation to notions of ‘laddism’ currently deployed in educational policy discourse around gender and achievement. As a group British-Chinese boys tend to very high achievement in the British Education system. The notion of ‘laddish behaviour’ as an explanation for boys’ apparent underachievement in comparison to girls at GCSE level was discussed with British-Chinese pupils. An overwhelming majority of British-Chinese pupils supported this explanation, and a majority of these pupils applied notions of ‘laddish behaviour’ to British-Chinese boys, to some extent contesting stereotypes of the Chinese as uniformly ‘good pupils’. However, the discourses of ‘the good Chinese pupil’ and ‘Chinese value of education’ were frequently drawn on by pupil respondents, with the result that the pupils often presented British-Chinese manifestations of ‘laddism’ as mild versions in comparison with pernicious ‘others’. The paper discusses different presentations of laddism among some of the male respondents. It concludes by analysing the impact of ‘raced’ and gendered discourses on British-Chinese constructions of masculinity. British-Chinese boys may be able to adopt versions of masculinity which do not impede their learning, but this tended to result in their masculinity being problematised in teacher discourse.

Constructions of racism by British Chinese pupils and parents

British Chinese pupils stand out as a high achieving group within the British education system and yet very little theoretical or policy attention has been given to these pupils identities and experiences of education. In this paper we consider British Chinese pupils (and parents) reports of their experiences of racism/s and their views on the potential causes of—and their responses to—racism. Analysis teases out several key components within respondents constructions of racism/s, including popular assumptions (e.g. that Chinese pupils are clever, quiet/passive, and hardworking). It is argued that pupils experienced the seemingly ‘positive’ stereotypes of British Chinese pupils as clever and hardworking as highly negative for a range of reasons and attention is drawn to respondents negotiations between conflicting identity positions (for example ‘geek’ and ‘tag’). Particular attention is also drawn to interplays of ‘race’/ethnicity and hegemonic masculinity within the production and resistance of racism/s.

British‐Chinese pupils’ constructions of gender and learning

British‐Chinese pupils are the highest achieving ethnic group in the British education system, and British‐Chinese boys’ performance equals that of girls. This paper investigates aspects of British‐Chinese pupils’ constructions of learning, focusing particularly on subject preferences and their constructions of themselves as pupils. The results are analysed according to gender as well as social class, and demonstrate that British‐Chinese pupils’ constructions of gender, subject preference and self‐image as pupils differ in some respects from those of pupils from other ethnic groups. Reasons for such differences are considered, and the paper also reflects on the implications of these findings in relation to broader findings concerning the stereotyping and ‘othering’ of the British‐Chinese within the British education system.

Commonality AND difference? Attempts to escape from theoretical dualisms in emancipatory research in education

Recent philosophical debates have questioned the bases of identity politics in educational research and elsewhere, drawing attention to complexity and diversity of identity. These arguments will be briefly rehearsed, with reference to feminist theory. The criticism that one facet of identity (e.g. gender) cannot be analysed in isolation from others has sometimes been addressed via the study of the intersection or interaction of these various facets. However, others have attacked such approaches, maintaining that such aspects of identity are inseparably intermeshed, and beyond analysis. The poststructuralist account of the self and diversity appears to offer an analytical approach which can address such problems, yet poststructuralist theory also problematises many of the fundamental assumptions underlying emancipatory research in education and elsewhere. This article seeks to debate these various issues, with reference to research in schools. It argues the validity of research concerning specific aspects of identity. Drawing on concepts from feminist theory and reader response criticism, it outlines an approach to such work which rejects the dualisms of relativism/realism, similarity/diversity.