There's been much focus in the sub recently regarding the Sarah Everard murder and the surrounding discourse. Whilst I think that is entirely appropriate for the sub, I'm interested to hear some perspectives on what could be done to actively improve male lives, rather than merely being put on the perpetual defensive by RadFem crusading.

I am a high school teacher in Scotland, and I am utterly convinced that the most sensible policy direction to assist males going forward lies in our approach to educating boys. Firstly, some contextualisation for Scottish education and the UK more broadly. Scotland has a devolved government within the UK which runs the great majority of our domestic affairs, including education. Thus, I will try to stick to Scottish-based evidence and approaches as much as possible, although some sources only deal with the UK as a whole and do not provide a breakdown to the home nation level.

Context

Boys generally do worse than girls in school in developed nations. This does not merely represent an improved performance by girls in recent decades; instead, boys perform more poorly than they once did. It is mainly white, working-class boys left behind in educational terms in the British context. This problem is felt most acutely in Scotland, which holds some of the UK's most deprived areas. My hometown of Glasgow is often considered the most disadvantaged in the UK - of the 23 areas identified as the worst-off in the UK, 20 were in Glasgow. That's pretty staggering when you consider that Scotland is only about 8% of the UK's entire population, and Glasgow is only 2.4%.

As with any phenomena surrounding social-economic class and gender differences, discerning why boys lag in school is nebulous. I've seen several recurring explanations in studies in this area. Girls are generally believed to engage in more pleasure reading than boys outside of school hours, which holds apparent benefits for literacy skills and general knowledge. Girls are also more likely to participate in co-curricular activities, which are essential in fostering positive relationships with pupils, maintaining an excellent home-school link, improving attainment and academic performance, in addition to improving social mobility. This intersects with class, as wealthier parents are far more likely than working-class parents to have the time and money to ensure their child's participation in co-curricular activities. However, an Irish study found that working-class girls were also more likely to participate in creative activities outside the classroom with a positive pay-off at school and in their personal development. (Note this study is based on a similar survey conducted in Scotland, with similar results, although I cannot find it at present.) There is also a tendency amongst educators to hold the view of "boys bad, girls good", which can lead to the disproportionately harsh treatment of boys regarding classroom management. If you have the time and are interested, I recommend watching Prof. Emer Smith's excellent talk on this issue, which goes into far more detail than possible here.

Whatever the reasons, there is broad agreement within academia and amongst educators that girls outperform their male counterparts.

Tackling the problem

The attainment gap between the worst-off and best-off pupils is now widely recognised amongst educators in Scotland and beyond. This is quite right, as social equality should be the overarching objective of any attempt to improve the attainment gap. However, I feel there is a sore lack of recognition that it is predominantly the worst-off boys left behind the most in developed nations' educational systems.

There are several actions I feel should be taken to help address the disparity between male and female pupils:

  1. Shifting school cultures from being "girl-friendly" to a more inclusive approach. Girls are typically better at self-discipline, particularly in a high school setting. They are better able to sit, listen and focus on work for extended periods than boys are. Two-thirds of teachers in OECD nations are female (with this number rising to 90%+ in the context of primary schools). These factors often combine to create the view that boys are worse pupils than girls - "deficient girls", as one psychologist described it. We need our schools to recognise that boys are less able to conform to the traditional modes of education than girls and enact more forms of active learning in classrooms, which has been shown to improve engagement and attainment in both genders. I also believe countries must encourage more males to enter the teaching profession, particularly in crucial early years, where lifelong attitudes towards education are often formulated.
  2. Institute mandatory requirements for mixed-ability classrooms. There is a lingering tendency to separate learners by ability, despite repeated findings that setting is less effective than inclusive classes. (e.g. TES report) This disproportionately affects boys, who often find themselves relegated to the lowest-set classes, especially in literacy-based subjects. This can affect compounding disillusionment with education, which is usually already intensely felt by boys liable to be placed in lower sets. While there are exceptional cases requiring pupils to be taken out of mainstream classes for additional support, inclusion should be standard practice.
  3. Improve and streamline access to technical education. Many boys are not academically-inclined, and that is fine. The problem lies in the fact that such boys are often shoe-horned into mainstream education's academic setting, which they struggle to engage with and may be subject to penalisation for failure to do so. We must do a better job of identifying boys with this inclination and helping them get into the educational path, which is right for them. There is something of a cultural obsession with getting more girls into STEM careers, including pathways found in technical education. To that end, there are campaigns, funding and generous encouragement for women and girls interested in this sort of career. That's great, but I feel there should be much greater provision for boys also.

Well, that ended up a whole lot longer than I intended. I may add more to this later on, but now, to reiterate my initial question, I'd like to hear what policies you think would be most beneficial in improving male lives.