About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about an alternative explanation for the attainment gap – that gender socialisation better prepares girls for school than boys, focusing in particular on: (i) some issues with socialisation theory as a way of explaining behaviour, particularly that it is overly deterministic; (ii) the role of education in shaping and reinforcing gender identities; (iii) arguments around the impacts of gender socialisation in producing different levels of engagement with education between boys and girls, notably Paul Willis’ work on working class masculine anti-school subcultures.

About the lecturer

Dr Sam Shields is Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University. She has written on a number of topics within education studies, focusing especially on gendered experiences of education and research methods in educational settings. Her publications include Working Class Female Students’ Experiences of Higher Education: Identities, Choices and Emotions (2021) and Research and Education (2015, co-author).