Foren/Community

interessante Neuigkeiten aus Großbritannien: Eine Studie der Universität Kent hat herausgefunden, dass den schlechteren Abschneiden von Jungen in der Schule eine selbsterfüllende Prophezeiung zugrunde liegen könnte (Selbsterfüllende Prophezeiungen haben seit jeher einen prominenten Platz in der Erklärung, warum Mädchen in Mathematik schlechter abschneiden; das ist aber die erste Studie mit dem Fokus auf Jungen, die ich kenne). Ich zitiere aus dem Artikel im Guardian:

"Girls think they are cleverer, more successful and harder working than boys from as young as four, a study has found.

Boys come round to this view by the age of seven or eight and assume that girls will outperform them at school and behave better in lessons, research from the University of Kent shows. The study – Gender Expectations and Stereotype Threat – will be presented to the British Educational Research Association's conference tomorrow.

The paper argues that teachers have lower expectations of boys than of girls and this belief fulfils itself throughout primary and secondary school. Girls' performance at school may be boosted by what they perceive to be their teachers' belief that they will achieve

higher results and be more conscientious than boys, the academics claim. Boys may underachieve because they pick up on teachers' assumptions that they will obtain lower results than girls and have less drive.

[...]

The study's findings are based on detailed questioning of 238 children aged between four and 10. The researchers presented the pupils with statements such as "this child is really clever" and "the teacher is taking the register and this child sits very quietly". They asked the

children which the statement best fitted – a picture of a girl or one of a boy.

The academics, Bonny Hartley and Robbie Sutton, also asked the children to point to one of the pictures in answer to the question "who do you think is cleverer" and "who is better behaved".

Girls at all ages said girls were cleverer, performed better and were more focused. Boys aged between four and seven were evenly  divided as to which gender was cleverer and more hardworking. But by the time boys reached seven or eight, they agreed with their female peers that girls were more likely to be cleverer and more successful. In a separate experiment, 140 of the children were divided into two groups. The academics told the first group that boys do not perform as well as girls. The second group were not told this. All the pupils were tested in maths, reading and writing. The academics found the boys in the first group performed "significantly worse" than boys in the second group, while girls' performance was similar in both groups. Teachers should be discouraged from using phrases such as "silly boys" and "schoolboy pranks" or asking boys why they can't "sit nicely like the girls" because this may help break the cycle of lower expectations of boys, the researchers argue. "By seven or eight years old, children of both genders believe that boys are less focused, able and successful than girls – and think that adults endorse this stereotype," Hartley said. "There are signs that these expectations have the potential to become self-fulfilling in influencing children's actual conduct and achievement." Hartley said that while it was unacceptable to divide classes by the race of their pupils, this was not the case for gender.

[...]

["]Adults do have an important role in helping children – whether they are girls or boys, high or low achievers – to have confidence in themselves as learners."" Auch die bbc, der telegraph, der telegraph, der independent und andere berichten (zumindest im Internet) über die Studie (und greifen auf dieselben Agenturmeldungen zurück). Interessant (weil nicht nur Agenturmeldungen) sind zudem die Artikelvon dailymail ("Boys 'being held back by women teachers' as gender stereotypes are reinforced in the classroom"; siehe die folgende Beschreibung bei parentdish), parentdish ("Female teachers are letting down boys in the classroom, says survey"; die Autorin sieht Sexismus von Seiten von Lehrerinnen am Werk) und womensviewsonnews ("Girls think they are cleverer than boys — and they may be right"; die Autorin ist der Meinung, dass sich Jungen nicht so sehr anstrengen, weil sie glauben, ohnehin die besten Jobs zu bekommen, obwohl Mädchen die besseren Schulabschlüsse machen — dasselbe Argument wie hier in Deutschland).

Was mir bei Artikeln aus Großbritannien immer wieder auffällt: Bei den Artikeln über Jungen gibt es kaum Feminist(inn)en, die etwas dazu schreiben. Insbesondere die Sorte (pro-)feministischer Mann, der in der Genderforschung und insbesondere in der Jungenarbeit arbeitet (Dissens, Alte Molkerei Frille,…), scheint es dort nicht zu geben oder zumindest keine so große Meinungsmacht zu besitzen. In den Artikeln über Jungen wird z.B. das Bild der "hegemonialen Männlichkeit" nicht als angemessen für die aktuelle Gesellschaft betrachtet (die meisten Journalisten werden es wahrscheinlich gar nicht kennen), während es in Deutschland das Paradigma der Männerforschung schlechthin ist (weswegen ich bezweifle, dass von dieser Forschung positive Impulse für die Arbeit mit Jungen kommen werden).

Die Studie selber konnte ich leider noch nicht finden; ich hoffe, dass sie in Zukunft wenigstens frei verfügbar sein wird.

Andreas

PS: Bei der Webseite der Universität Kent habe ich doch noch etwas Interessantes gefunden.