Boys and underachievement: the Scottish dimension

This paper, based on a project funded by the Equal Opportunities Commission and undertaken at the University of Stirling between 1994 and 1995 (Turner et al. 1995), investigates the impact of the Conservative government's educational reform programme on gender equality policy and practice in education authorities and schools. Gender equality policies arose out of a social justice agenda whereas educational reforms were market‐driven. In Scotland these diverse policies were introduced simultaneously against a backcloth of concern about boys’ school performance. In considering the combined effect of market‐driven reforms and gender equality policies, the following questions are considered. If the relative improvement in girls’ school performance coincides with gender equality policies and market‐driven reforms, then should we see either or both contributing to this effect? On the other hand, if the origins of improvement predate both gender equality programmes and educational reforms, then do we need to look elsewhere for contributory factors? To what extent is the problem of boys’ relatively poorer school performance ideological rather than a reflection of social reality?