McCoy, Selina and Byrne, Delma and Banks, Joanne (2010) Too much of a good thing? Gender, 'Concerted cultivation' and unequal achievement in primary education. ESRI Working Paper No. 362. Working Paper. ESRI, Dublin.

Download (301kB)

Abstract

It is well established that cultural and economic resources imparted to children vary significantly by social class. Literature on concerted cultivation has highlighted the extent to which out-of-school activities can reproduce social inequalities in the classroom. Within this literature however, little attention has been given to the role of gender in concerted cultivation. In this paper, we use data from the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study to consider how both social class and gender influence the level and type of out-of-school activities in which children engage. Moreover, we examine how out-of-school activities, class and gender impact on children’s school engagement and academic achievement. We find that while childrearing logics tend to operate within social class categories, there is an additional cultural aspect of gender in the uptake of different types of out-of-school activities. Our findings suggest the need to move beyond explanations of concerted cultivation to explain gender differences in maths and reading attainment.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	ESRI working papers represent un-refereed work-in-progress by members who are solely responsible for the content and any views expressed therein. Any comments on these papers will be welcome and should be sent to the author(s) by email. Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Subsequently published in "Too Much of a Good Thing? Gender, ‘Concerted Cultivation’ and Unequal Achievement in Primary Education", Child Indicators Research, Vol. 5, No 1, March 2012, pp.155-178, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12187-011-9118-2, Published online 18 June 2011
Keywords:	Gender; Concerted cultivation; unequal achievement; primary education;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	4346
Depositing User:	Delma Byrne
Date Deposited:	08 May 2013 15:26
Publisher:	ESRI
URI:	http://www.esri.ie
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads